Teleconvection: Remotely Driven Thermal Convection in Rotating Stratified Spherical Layers

Abstract

We report the discovery of a convective phenomenon found to occur in a rotating spherical system in which an inner convectively unstable fluid layer is bounded by a corotating outer convectively stable fluid layer. Although convection is thermally driven in the unstable interior, the resulting convective motions concentrate primarily in the stable outer region. This phenomenon, which we term teleconvection, suggests that fluid motions observed at the “surface” of a planet (such as Jupiter's alternating zonal winds) may be driven by an energy source located deep inside the planet.