科学美国人60秒:Great Red Spot Helps Explain Jupiter's Warm Upper Atmosphere

For most people, Jupiter’s most recognizable—and mysterious—feature is the Great Red Spot. For centuries, astronomers have watched the storm spin across the giant world’s face.
对大多数人而言，木星最容易辨认和最神秘的特征在于：大红斑。几个世纪以来，天文学家早已观察到木星表面的大红斑。

But for planetary scientists, Jupiter’s most distinctive mystery may be what’s called the “energy crisis” of its upper atmosphere: how do temperatures average about as warm as Earth’s even though the enormous planet is more than fives times further away from the sun?
但是对于行星科学家而言，木星最独特的神秘之处在于所谓的上层大气中的“能源危机”：为何木星的平均温度与地球一样温暖？即使这个巨大的行星与太阳的距离大约是日地距离的5倍。

All the sun’s giant planets display this energy crisis, and those in chilly orbits around other stars probably have it, too. So where does the energy to heat their upper atmospheres come from?
所有太阳系中的巨行星都呈现出能源危机，并且在寒冷的轨道和其他恒星周围可能也会存在能源危机。那么加热其上层大气的能量从何而来？

According to a new study, the energy must originate within the giants, get transported upward and become amplified by turbulent storms. The finding appears in the journal Nature. [James O'Donoghue et al, Heating of Jupiter’s upper atmosphere above the Great Red Spot]
根据一项新的研究，能量肯定源自巨行星，然后向上输送，并且通过动荡的暴风雨过度扩大。该项研究结果发表在《自然》杂志上。

This offers a new window into Jupiter’s depths, and should allow researchers to better understand gas-giant atmospheres throughout the universe. And it’s all connected to the Great Red Spot.
这为探索木星深处提供了一个新的视角。并且这项发现有助于研究人员揭晓整个宇宙中的巨型大气层的奥秘，并且这与大红斑之间是相互联系的。

Astronomers have long known that auroral displays can heat Jupiter’s poles, where charged particles trapped in the planet’s intense magnetic field slam into its upper atmosphere. Some theorists thought this auroral heating could flow toward the equator to warm the planet’s mid-latitudes. So, using NASA’s Infrared Telescope Facility, astronomers observed Jupiter for nine hours, looking for these flows as thermal fluctuations in the planet’s upper atmosphere.
天文学家们早就知道极光可以加热木星的两极，由于被困于行星强烈磁场中的带电粒子猛烈地撞击上层大气。一些理论家认为极光热量可以向赤道流动从而使行星的中纬度地区变暖。因此，天文学家们利用美国宇航局的红外望远镜设备，对木星观测了九个小时，来寻找这些热流，当木星上层大气温度波动时。

But they saw none.
但他们什么也没有观察到。

Instead, in Jupiter’s mid-latitudes they spied a thermal spike 800 kilometers above the Great Red Spot, where temperatures soared hundreds of degrees higher than the surroundings. The best way to explain this spike is from the swirling maelstrom below, where turbulent atmospheric waves must generate heat by crashing together like breakers on a windy beach shore. Though this must be a planet-wide phenomenon, it is most obvious directly over Jupiter’s largest, most powerful storm.
相反，在木星的中纬度地区，他们在大红斑上方800公里处发现温度峰值。那里的温度飙升几百度，高于周围环境。科学家认为用于解释这一峰值的最好的方式是大红斑风暴之上的大气湍流是由重力波和声波制造，这种加热现象可能是在重力波和声波结合效应下产生的，这两种波发生“碰撞”，其方式类似于海洋波浪拍打海岸。尽管这是一个全球性的现象，但它在木星最强大的风暴中最为显著。

As alien as it seems, scientists have seen the same behavior on much smaller, gentler scales here on Earth, when thunderheads rising over mountain ranges create rippling waves that heat the air above.
这虽然看起来格格不入，但科学家们已经在地球上发现了相同的现象，但规模较小、较温和。当雷雨云上升越过山脉，可以产生微波从而加热上方的空气。

—Lee Billings
Lee Billings报道。