I would be surprised if this were it, Steve. Benard cells are a packing phenomenon, so they rely on the cooperative effect through the lattice to form. I assume this Saturn jet stream basically has a latitudinal instability, and the interference effect from having it recycle either adjusts the wavelength, or adjusts the position of the circumference, so that it finds a consistent re-entrant pattern.
A thing that would be very cool is if, as the northern-hemisphere summer goes on, enough more heat enters that part of the atmosphere that it drives the stream differently, the natural wavelength of the instability changes, and the belt goes into a new polygon like a pentagon, perhaps with a period of chaos or something else complicated in the transition. But, I have never done a real fluid-dynamics calculation, so this is of course completely idle on my part. Eric On Dec 15, 2013, at 12:51 AM, Stephen Guerin wrote: > On Sat, Dec 14, 2013 at 8:31 PM, Owen Densmore <o...@backspaces.net> wrote: > OK, so why hexagon? > http://goo.gl/tAE9Od > > What about good old-fashioned Bénard hexagonal cells from convection? > > eg: http://goo.gl/yQL2La > > <benard_hexagon.png> > > --- -. . ..-. .. ... .... - .-- --- ..-. .. ... .... > stephen.gue...@redfish.com > 1600 Lena St #D1, Santa Fe, NM 87505 > office: (505) 995-0206 tollfree: (888) 414-3855 > mobile: (505) 577-5828 fax: (505) 819-5952 > tw: @redfishgroup skype: redfishgroup gvoice: (505) 216-6226 > redfish.com | simtable.com > > > On Sat, Dec 14, 2013 at 8:31 PM, Owen Densmore <o...@backspaces.net> wrote: > OK, so why hexagon? > http://goo.gl/tAE9Od > > Isn't this impossible as a weather artifact? More likely a physical artifact > on the surface? > > -- Owen > > _______________________________________________ > Wedtech mailing list > wedt...@redfish.com > http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/wedtech_redfish.com > > > ============================================================ > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College > to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com
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