Abstract
The observed zonal winds at Jupiter’s cloud tops have been shown to be
closely linked to the asymmetric part of the planet’s measured gravity
field. However, other measurements suggest that in some latitudinal
regions the flow below the clouds might be somewhat different from the
observed cloud-level winds. Here we show, using both the symmetric and
asymmetric parts of the measured gravity field, that the observed
cloud-level wind profile between 25oS and
25oN must extend unaltered to depths of thousands of
kilometers. Poleward, the midlatitude deep jets also contribute to the
gravity signal, but might differ somewhat from the cloud-level winds. We
analyze the likelihood of this difference and give bounds to its
strength. We also find that to match the gravity measurements, the winds
must project inward in the direction parallel to Jupiter’s spin axis,
and that their decay inward should be in the radial direction.