The zonal flow in Jupiter’s upper troposphere is organized into alternating retrograde and prograde jets, withuda prograde (superrotating) jet at the equator. Existing models posit as the driver of the flow either differentialudradiative heating of the atmosphere or intrinsic heat fluxes emanating from the deep interior; however, they doudnot reproduce all large-scale features of Jupiter’s jets and thermal structure. Here it is shown that the difficultiesudin accounting for Jupiter’s jets and thermal structure resolve if the effects of differential radiativeudheating and intrinsic heat fluxes are considered together, and if upper-tropospheric dynamics are linked to audmagnetohydrodynamic(MHD)drag that acts deep in the atmosphere and affects the zonal flow away from butudnot near the equator. Baroclinic eddies generated by differential radiative heating can account for the off-equatorialudjets; meridionally propagating equatorial Rossby waves generated by intrinsic convective heatudfluxes can account for the equatorial superrotation. The zonal flow extends deeply into the atmosphere, with itsudspeed changing with depth, away from the equator up to depths at which the MHD drag acts. The theory isudsupported by simulations with an energetically consistent general circulation model of Jupiter’s outer atmosphere.udA simulation that incorporates differential radiative heating and intrinsic heat fluxes reproducesudJupiter’s observed jets and thermal structure and makes testable predictions about as yet unobserved aspectsudthereof. A control simulation that incorporates only differential radiative heating but not intrinsic heat fluxesudproduces off-equatorial jets but no equatorial superrotation; another control simulation that incorporates onlyudintrinsic heat fluxes but not differential radiative heating produces equatorial superrotation but no off-equatorialudjets. The proposed mechanisms for the formation of jets and equatorial superrotation likely actudin the atmospheres of all giant planets.
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