Jovian acoustics and Comet Shoemaker–Levy 9

A technique for solving three-dimensional ocean acoustics problems is modified to handle Jovian acoustics problems and applied to model propagation from the impact sites of the fragments of Comet Shoemaker–Levy 9. The adiabatic mode parabolic equation is generalized to media with fluid flow for the case of low Mach number. The vertical dependence of sound speed and density and the latitude dependence of the zonal winds are known from Voyager data. The acoustic model predicts that energy that radiated from the impact sites was vertically concentrated within a sound channel that includes the cloud layers and horizontally concentrated into intense caustics by refraction associated with wind shear. Although nonlinear effects are important near the impact sites, the spatial distribution of energy should be qualitatively represented by the linear acoustics results.