Saturn displays cyclonic vortices at its poles and the general atmospheric circulation at other latitudes is dominated by embedded zonal jets that display cyclonic circulation. The abundance of small-scale convective storms suggests that convection plays a role in producing and maintaining Saturn’s atmospheric circulation. However, the dynamical influence of small-scale convection on Saturn’s general circulation is not well understood. Here we present laboratory analogue experiments and propose that Saturn’s cyclonic circulation can be explained by tilted convection in which buoyancy forces do not align with the planet’s rotation axis. In our experiments—conducted with a cylindrical water tank that is heated at the bottom, cooled at the top and spun on a rotating table—warm rising plumes and cold sinking water generate small anticyclonic and cyclonic vortices that are qualitatively similar to Saturn’s convective storms. Numerical simulations complement the experiments and show that this small-scale convection leads to large-scale cyclonic flow at the surface and anticyclonic circulation at the base of the fluid layer, with a polar vortex forming from the merging of smaller cyclonic storms that are driven polewards.

土星在其极点显示旋风涡旋，其他纬度的总体大气环流主要由显示旋风环流的嵌入式纬向射流控制。小规模的对流风暴表明，对流在产生和维持土星的大气环流中发挥着作用。但是，对流对土星总环流的动力学影响尚不十分清楚。在这里，我们提出了实验室模拟实验，并提出了土星的旋风循环可以通过倾斜的对流来解释，其中的浮力与行星的旋转轴不对齐。在我们的实验中-用底部加热的圆柱形水箱进行加热，在顶部冷却并在转盘上旋转-温暖的上升羽流和冷沉的水产生小的反气旋和旋风涡流，在质量上类似于土星的对流风暴。数值模拟补充了实验结果，结果表明，这种小尺度对流导致地面上的大规模旋风流动和流体层底部的反气旋循环，极地旋涡是由较小的气旋风暴合并形成的极涡形成。 。