| abstract: |
The moist convection in Jupiter's atmosphere is thought to play an important role in determining the mean vertical structure of the atmosphere, including condensible species distribution. However, the mean structure of the Jupiter's atmosphere and its relationship to moist convection remain unclear, because it is difficult to observe the possible moist convection region below the visible cloud deck.
With this background in mind, we have developed a numerical fluid dynamical model that treats thermodynamics and microphysics of the three cloud components, H2O, NH3, and NH4SH. A series of long-term numerical simulations of moist convection is performed in order to investigate the idealized characteristics of the vertical structure of multi-composition clouds and the convective motions associated with them. A prominent result obtained is intermittent emergence of vigorous cumulonimbus clouds rising from the H2O condensation level to the tropopause. Due to the active transport associated with these clouds, the mean vertical distributions of cloud particles and condensible gases are distinctly different from the hitherto accepted three-layered structure based on the thermodynamical equilibrium calculation; considerable amounts of H2O and NH4SH cloud particles exist above the NH3 condensation level, while the mixing ratios of all condensible gases decrease with height from the H2O condensation level. The mean vertical profile of NH3 vapor is consistent with the results of radio observations in that the abundance of NH3 is subsolar below the NH3 cloud base.
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