The inertia-gravity waves caused by the impact of shoemaker-levy 9 with jupiter

Abstract

After the collision of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 (SL9) with Jupiter, some ring structures were observed propagating outwards at a constant speed (∼450 m/s) on the Jovian surface. These are thought to be linear waves caused by the collision. A linear model of the collision is presented, in which the Jovian atmosphere is considered as an irrotational, inviscid, stratified and incompressible fluid layer moving at a speed of U = b + az. We take an initial impulsive pressure p(r; 0) as the initial condition and solve the fluid dynamics equations for inertia-gravity waves. It is found that most part of the perturbation energy is used to produce internal waves when Jovian atmosphere moves at a constant speed (U = Uo (∼170 m/s)). A relation between the impact depth H and the horizontal phase speed vp is deduced. Finally, the inertia-gravity waves are discussed for the case U = b + az and it is found that the perturbation energy is then not divided equally between kinetic energy and potential energy because of the effect of a shear.