Skip to main content

Extraterrestrial within the Solar System


Studying how the weather works on other planets has been seen as helpful in understanding how it works on Earth. Weather on other planets follows many of the same physical principles as weather on Earth, but occurs on different scales and in atmospheres having different chemical composition. The Cassini–Huygens mission to Titan discovered clouds formed from methane or ethane which deposit rain composed of liquid methane and other organic compounds Earth's atmosphere includes six latitudinal circulation zones, three in each hemisphere.In contrast, Jupiter's banded appearance shows many such zones,Titan has a single jet stream near the 50th parallel north latitude,and Venus has a single jet near the equator.

One of the most famous landmarks in the Solar System, Jupiter's Great Red Spot, is an anticyclonic storm known to have existed for at least 300 years. On other gas giants, the lack of a surface allows the wind to reach enormous speeds: gusts of up to 600 metres per second (about 2,100 km/h or 1,300 mph) have been measured on the planet Neptune.This has created a puzzle for planetary scientists. The weather is ultimately created by solar energy and the amount of energy received by Neptune is only about  1⁄900 of that received by Earth, yet the intensity of weather phenomena on Neptune is far greater than on Earth.The strongest planetary winds discovered so far are on the extrasolar planet HD 189733 b, which is thought to have easterly winds moving at more than 9,600 kilometres per hour (6,000 mph).
Weather is not limited to planetary bodies. Like all stars, the sun's corona is constantly being lost to space, creating what is essentially a very thin atmosphere throughout the Solar System. The movement of mass ejected from the Sun is known as the solar wind. Inconsistencies in this wind and larger events on the surface of the star, such as coronal mass ejections, form a system that has features analogous to conventional weather systems (such as pressure and wind) and is generally known as space weather. Coronal mass ejections have been tracked as far out in the solar system as Saturn. The activity of this system can affect planetary atmospheres and occasionally surfaces. The interaction of the solar wind with the terrestrial atmosphere can produce spectacular aurorae, and can play havoc with electrically sensitive systems such as electricity grids and radio signals.




Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Weather station

A weather station is a facility, either on land or sea, with instruments and equipment for measuring atmospheric conditions to provide information for weather forecasts and to study the weather and climate. The measurements taken include temperature, atmospheric pressure, humidity, wind speed, wind direction, and precipitation amounts. Wind measurements are taken with as few other obstructions as possible, while temperature and humidity measurements are kept free from direct solar radiation, or insolation. Manual observations are taken at least once daily, while automated measurements are taken at least once an hour. Weather conditions out at sea are taken by ships and buoys, which measure slightly different meteorological quantities such as sea surface temperature (SST), wave height, and wave period. Drifting weather buoys outnumber their moored versions by a significant amount. Typical weather stations have the following instruments: Thermometer for measuring air and sea surface t...

Weather radar

Weather radar, also called weather surveillance radar (WSR) and Doppler weather radar, is a type of radar used to locate precipitation, calculate its motion, and estimate its type (rain, snow, hail etc.). Modern weather radars are mostly pulse-Doppler radars, capable of detecting the motion of rain droplets in addition to the intensity of the precipitation. Both types of data can be analyzed to determine the structure of storms and their potential to cause severe weather. During World War II, military radar operators noticed noise in returned echoes due to rain, snow, and sleet. After the war, military scientists returned to civilian life or continued in the Armed Forces and pursued their work in developing a use for those echoes. In the United States, David Atlas, at first working for the Air Force and later for MIT, developed the first operational weather radars. In Canada, J.S. Marshall and R.H. Douglas formed the "Stormy Weather Group" in Montreal. Marshall and his ...

Global Telecommunication System (GTS)

The Global Telecommunication System (GTS) is a global network for the transmission of meteorological data from weather stations, satellites and numerical weather prediction centres. The GTS consists of an integrated network of point-to-point circuits, and multi-point circuits which interconnect meteorological telecommunication centres. The circuits of the GTS are composed of a combination of terrestrial and satellite telecommunication links. They comprise point-to-point circuits, point-to-multi-point circuits for data distribution, multi-point-to-point circuits for data collection, as well as two-way multi-point circuits. Meteorological Telecommunication Centres are responsible for receiving data and relaying it selectively on GTS circuits. The GTS is organized on a three level basis: The Main Telecommunication Network (MTN)WMO's Global Telecommunication System (GTS) is the communications and data management component that allows the World Weather Watch (WWW) to oper...