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The quasiquadrennial oscillation of Jupiter's equatorial
stratosphere Conway B. Leovy*, A. James Friedson† & Glenn S. Orton†
* Department of
Atmospheric Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195, USA
† Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, 4800 Oak Grove
Drive, Pasadena, California 91109, USA
A NEW 11-year record of Jupiter's stratospheric temperature1
shows an equatorial temperature oscillation with an apparent period of 4–5
years. Here we compare this oscillation to two long-period oscillations of
zonal winds in the Earth's equatorial stratosphere, and propose that the same
mechanism—forcing by the stresses of vertically propagating waves—is
responsible for the oscillations on both planets. Jupiter's temperature
oscillation has been observed for slightly more than two cycles and closely
resembles the temperature signatures of the Earth's semiannual oscillation and
quasibiennial oscillation. If the mechanisms responsible for these oscillations
are indeed similar, Jupiter's oscillation indicates that there is significant
vertical momentum transport due to equatorially trapped atmospheric waves, and
it may provide a means for probing the poorly understood process of the
generation of these waves by convection2,3.
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