Eric -
Nicely stated.
This is what I was fumbling around for... I am surprised not to be able
to find much if anything about this in the popular literature describing
the hexagon.
I'd not be surprised if an aspiring SF writer, following the footsteps
of Bob Forward wouldn't be able to integrate an event such as you
described into a good story.
I did find someone who did build an analog model that demonstrates
similar properties:
http://news.discovery.com/space/a-laboratory-model-of-saturns-eerie-hexagon.htm
This wouldn't be FRAIM without an element of idleness ;)
- 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.
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