Padraig Donnelly, a former postdoctoral researcher at LMD Jussieu, presents a new study in Icarus analysing large-scale vortices in Saturn’s atmosphere using the Saturn-DYNAMICO global climate model (GCM). This research examines the spatial, temporal, and dynamical properties of these vortices, which play a crucial role in gas giant atmospheric dynamics. Three detection methods—manual identification, artificial neural networks (ANN), and the Automated Eddy-Detection Algorithm (AMEDA)—are compared to evaluate their effectiveness in capturing vortex characteristics.

The study finds that vortex formation is spontaneous and consistently linked to eddy-mean flow interactions, with size and intensity distributions broadly aligning with observations. However, discrepancies in vortex location, size, and concentration highlight model limitations, emphasising the need for improved representations of moist convection and jet structure. These findings enhance our understanding of Saturn’s atmospheric circulation and provide a framework for comparative studies of giant planet vortices.