![hs-2014-24-a-web_print[1]](http://wattsupwiththat.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/hs-2014-24-a-web_print1.jpg?w=150&resize=150%2C106)
From the European Space Agency:
Jupiter’s trademark Great Red Spot — a swirling storm feature larger than Earth — is shrinking. This downsizing, which is changing the shape of the spot from an oval into a circle, has been known about since the 1930s, but now these striking new NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope images capture the spot at a smaller size than ever before.
![hs-2014-24-a-web_print[1]](http://wattsupwiththat.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/hs-2014-24-a-web_print1.jpg?quality=83)
Jupiter’s Great Red Spot is a churning anticyclonic storm [1]. It shows up in images of the giant planet as a conspicuous deep red eye embedded in swirling layers of pale yellow, orange and white. Winds inside this Jovian storm rage at immense speeds, reaching several hundreds of kilometres per hour.
Historic observations as far back as the late 1800s [2] gauged this turbulent spot to span about 41 000 kilometres at its widest point — wide enough to fit three Earths comfortably side by side. In 1979 and 1980 the NASA Voyager fly-bys measured the spot at a shrunken 23 335 kilometres across. Now, Hubble has spied this feature to be smaller than ever before.
“Recent Hubble Space Telescope observations confirm that the spot is now just under 16 500 kilometres across, the smallest diameter we’ve ever measured,” said Amy Simon of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, USA.
Amateur observations starting in 2012 revealed a noticeable increase in the spot’s shrinkage rate. The spot’s “waistline” is getting smaller by just under 1000 kilometres per year. The cause of this shrinkage is not yet known.
“In our new observations it is apparent that very small eddies are feeding into the storm,” said Simon. “We hypothesised that these may be responsible for the accelerated change by altering the internal dynamics of the Great Red Spot.”
Simon’s team plan to study the motions of these eddies, and also the internal dynamics of the spot, to determine how the stormy vortex is fed with or sapped of momentum.
This full-disc image of Jupiter was taken on 21 April 2014 with Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3).
Notes
[1] The Great Red Spot is a high-pressure anticyclone. It rotates in an anti-clockwise direction in Jupiter’s southern hemisphere.
[2] The Great Red Spot itself may have been mentioned in writings before the late 1800s. There are references to Jupiter’s “permanent spot” dating back as far as the late 1600s, although some astronomers disagree that the permanent spot mentioned is the Great Red Spot.
Discover more from Watts Up With That?
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Don’t worry the solar system, the galaxy, and the universe are blessed with savior The Anointed One Obama.
The Jovians are celebrating because, “This was the moment when the rise of the ammonia-methane oceans began to slow and the planet began to heal, and that damn red spot super-mega-mega-mega typhoon finally began to disappear.”
// OK, really bad sarc, but still sarc//
Here’s my scientific paper on the subject:
Abstract: Man-made C02 warms the Earth!!! We’re all gonna die!! DO SOMETHING !!
Article: Oh, and Jupiter’s spot is shrinking. (Insert highly innovative BS here)
Reblogged this on Tallbloke's Talkshop.
Well, I am going to remain a red spot skeptic and denier until I see the proxy tree ring data.
Guys are desperately trying to understand the longevity of the Great Red Spot.
Unfortunately their effort is completely misguided, for it does not clarify anything but puts up the (false) claim of some big inconsistency, where no consistency was to be expected in the first place.
I am starting an interplanetary environmental group called Redpiece, with the initial goal of saving the fast-disappearing red spots which have become endangered, and may soon become extinct if we don’t act now. Membership is easy, and there will be many different membership levels, starting from $50. Who’s with me?
The variability of Jupiter’s Red Spot indicates that a planet’s climate can vary significantly all on its own, without any change in “forcings.” This is a feature that can happen on other climates too, such as Mars, with its variably sized polar caps. (IIRC. there are variations on other planets and their moons too.) Why, then, should Earth be an exception?
In a moment of sheer speculation, I have wondered if decreased solar output has something to with it.
to determine how the stormy vortex is fed with or sapped of momentum.
====
uh no…when it gets smaller it gets more defined and stronger
“The cause of this shrinkage is not yet known.”
I’ll bet he’s been in the pool.
Don’t be so silly. It’s a natural phenomenon. In fact it’s the only natural phenomenon in the whole universe that’s not caused by excess CO2.
“Somehow, I’m sure somebody will figure out a way to blame ‘climate change’ for this”
Evidentially Anthony, I have the same affliction you have because I thought that exact thing when I saw the article in the local paper.
Obama: “Climate change is a fact and it’s happening now! You can see it clearly as Jupiter’s great red spot is shrinking. We must act now or our grandchildren will not be able to enjoy this wonderful sight.”
JimG132 says:
May 17, 2014 at 5:52 am
“The cause of this shrinkage is not yet known.”
I’ll bet he’s been in the pool.
Uh, does being in the pool cause shrinkage to that which is between one’s ears?
🙂
The commentators on CBC knew what to blame it on. See the comments where the skeptics have had great fun blaming it on CC and pokeing the alarmists.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/jupiter-s-giant-red-spot-could-be-gone-in-17-years-scientist-says-1.2645013
The spot hasn’t changed. The spot only APPEARS smaller because of the reverse lensing effect RESULTING from increased CO2 in Earths atmosphere.
/Lol
Save Our Spot
Perhaps this may help us get a better GRIP on some of the processes that may be involved with the Red spot?
And the polar “ice caps” on Mars are
(1) still shrinking,
(2) steady – no longer shrinking?
(3) expanding ?
Funny, wasn’t it Charon – waaaay out there orbiting Pluto – that was expanding (getting more visible) at the same time that Mars was losing its frozen ice caps and Jupiter was losing its Red Spot ?
Ah so. I guess that’s what’s called top-down thinking, or is it bass ackward?. ‘No chance, I guess, that Jupiter’s internal dynamics might have something to do with the appearance of the top of Jupiter’s atmosphere.
Well, with our keen understanding of everything there is to know about Earth’s atmosphere, and our ability to make not only long-range forecasts far into the future, but also to account for both mild and dramatic fluctuations in Earth’s climate history, deciphering Jupiter’s many spots and rotating bands should be duck soup for these chaps, and I suppose we should all count our blessings that the climate science for Jupiter will soon be settled too.
@Alan Poirier
>IN MBH98 Herr Mann shows the spot was much smaller during the MWP.
Alan I have spotted a problem with this claim – the logic is circular. Tree rings are oval, The Red Spot is oval (well, it was…). Herr Mann said (1998) there was no MWP. Later (2008) he said there was, but it wasn’t global. The Red Spot isn’t global either. See the connection? No?
The tree rings are oval; the Red Spot was oval; there was no MWP. Now, there was an MWP, but not a global one; the Red Spot is round and smaller; now, tree rings are pear-shaped. See?
Circular logic: works every time.
It’s all our fault.
The Jupitertarians must have finally closed their last coal-fired power plant.
That’s why the spot is changing.
(Oh…but wait a minute….)
Other planets & Pluto still warming as of 2007. Maybe the “Pause” (better known as Plateau) has hit them by now, too, though.
http://www.dailytech.com/Global+Warming+on+Mars++and+Jupiter+Pluto+Neptune/article6544.htm
But in that case how to explain the amazing shrinking Great Red Spot?
Spot on.
See Spot shrink.