New Red Spot Options

[Guest_Sunspot_*]

http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2006/02....htm?list771283

[TritonAntares]

Didn't mention this so far...


Does anyone know when both spots will reach the same longitude?

I hope this event will happen when NEW HORIZONS passes Jupiter next year...

Even if it's unlikely (due to their different latitudes), there is still the possibility of a merger of both spots...

Bye.

[helvick]

Didn't mention this so far...
Does anyone know when both spots will reach the same longitude?
I hope this event will happen when NEW HORIZONS passes Jupiter next year...
Even if it's unlikely (due to their different latitudes), there is still the possibility of a merger of both spots...

That would be pretty interesting.
From what I can see Red Jr\Not So Great Red Spot appears to me to completely span (and disrupt) the South Temperate Zone almost extending into the South Tropical Zone and- at least according to the definitions on this observing page which explains the zone\band naming convention.
Using Dynamics of Jupiter's Atmosphere Ingersol et al 2004 as a source for the relative velocities of the various zones\bands.
My reading of the velocity\latitude chart in Fig 6.2 is that the GRS has an average eastward velocity of somewhere around -50 m/sec. This new storm should have a net eastward velocity somehwere in the region of 10-20m/sec. That difference is close to 250km/h
Eyeballing the two storms they _seem_ to me to be about 70 degrees apart - that's about 87,000km.
If all of the above is reasonable then they should coincide in around 14 days from the time the picture was
taken (Feb 27th) which would be March 13th.

Even if the above is grossly incorrect then I think that the differences in velocity of the two zones does mean that they will "coincide" pretty soon, and obviouly do so a number of times before NH arrives.