vortices

Smoke released from the leading plane allowed cameras installed in the towed aircraft to capture vortices in the air that a glider can exploit to stay aloft.

The spot could have formed as a result of a gigantic superstorm, similar to those occasionally observed on Jupiter's twin planet Saturn; from the merging of multiple smaller vortices produced by wind shear from the intense wind currents that flow parallel to each other, but alternating in direction with latitude; or from an instability in the winds that could produce an elongated atmospheric cell, similar in shape to the Spot.

The formation mechanism is supported by observations of large, elongated cells in the genesis of other major vortices on Jupiter.

To explore how this immense vortex could have formed, the researchers carried out numerical simulations on supercomputers using two models of the behavior of thin vortices in Jupiter's atmosphere.

The 2022 study focused directly on Jupiter's cyclones, but Siegelman also saw wispy tendrils, known to researchers as filaments, in the spaces between the gassy vortices.