- #1
Tazerfish
- 120
- 25
- TL;DR Summary
- What non gas–giants have the fastest wind speeds?
What are the factors (like surface pressure, coriolis parameter, planetary radius) affecting wind speeds?
Where could I look to learn more about this?
I love weather and atmospheric physics! So when I recently read Dune, I couldn’t stop thinking about the “Coriolis Storm”, wondering if such a crazy storm could really exist, ripping around an Earth-like planet at 700 km/h.
For me, this became a worldbuilding exercise: What makes the windiest exoplanets?
I found this article discussing the fastest wind speeds we have observed in our solar system and beyond: https://www.forbes.com/sites/starts...-the-fastest-planetary-winds-in-the-universe/.
But as I was reading it, I realized I don’t understand the observed patterns at all.
Neptune, the furthest-out and coldest planet, has the highest wind speeds although temperature differences drive the winds.
Moreover, Venus, a planet that barely rotates at all, has wind speeds faster than Earth’s, exceeding even its planetary rotation speed.
That doesn't make any sense to me.
I’ve had a few introductory lectures on enviromental/atmospheric physics where I learned (among other things) about geostrophic flow, thermal wind, and global circulation.
However, real life is often so complicated that these simple models don’t get you far—at least when you only superficially understand them.
I struggle to apply the ideas here, instead asking the experts:
What factors produce high wind-speed planets ?
Where can I read up on exoplanet wind/dynamics ?
For me, this became a worldbuilding exercise: What makes the windiest exoplanets?
I found this article discussing the fastest wind speeds we have observed in our solar system and beyond: https://www.forbes.com/sites/starts...-the-fastest-planetary-winds-in-the-universe/.
But as I was reading it, I realized I don’t understand the observed patterns at all.
Neptune, the furthest-out and coldest planet, has the highest wind speeds although temperature differences drive the winds.
Moreover, Venus, a planet that barely rotates at all, has wind speeds faster than Earth’s, exceeding even its planetary rotation speed.
That doesn't make any sense to me.
I’ve had a few introductory lectures on enviromental/atmospheric physics where I learned (among other things) about geostrophic flow, thermal wind, and global circulation.
However, real life is often so complicated that these simple models don’t get you far—at least when you only superficially understand them.
I struggle to apply the ideas here, instead asking the experts:
What factors produce high wind-speed planets ?
Where can I read up on exoplanet wind/dynamics ?