Nonuniform Water Distribution in Jupiter's Mid Latitudes: Influence of Precipitation and Planetary Rotation

Abstract

Knowing the composition of Jupiter's atmosphere is crucial for constraining Jupiter's bulk metallicity and formation history. Yet, constraining Jupiter's atmospheric water abundance is challenging due to its potential non-uniform distribution. Here, we explicitly resolve the water hydrological cycle in Jupiter's mid-latitudes using high-resolution simulations. Falling precipitation leads to a significant large-scale depletion of water vapor beneath the lifting condensation level. A non-uniform water vapor distribution emerges in the mid-latitude simulation with a changing Coriolis parameter across latitudes and spatially uniform cooling and heating. Water abundance at the 7-bar level varies by up to a factor of ten across latitudes, from sub-solar to super-solar values. We propose that nonlinear large-scale eddies and waves tend to drift air parcels across latitudes along constant potential vorticity (PV) surfaces, thereby sustaining latitudinal dependencies in water vapor and the interplay between water distribution and large-scale dynamics. Therefore, water distribution is influenced by the vertical structure of density stratification and changing Coriolis parameter across Jupiter's mid-latitudes, as quantified by PV. Additionally, the water hydrological cycle amplifies the specific energy of air parcels through the latent heat effect, thereby slowing down vertical mixing with a latent heat flux. The horizontal gradient of water is expected to be more pronounced with a super-solar water abundance. We suggest that similar interplays between precipitating condensates, planetary rotation, and distribution of condensable species generally exist in the weather layer of fast-rotating giant planets. The ongoing Juno mission and future Uranus mission may further reveal the non-uniform distribution of condensed species and their interplay with large-scale dynamics.

arXiv commentPublished in PNAS on Sep. 29, 2025 (www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2419087122). Movies can be found in https://github.com/huazhige/Movies.git. SI Appendix can be found on PNAS website

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