Jupiter’s dynamics shapes its cloud patterns but remains largely unknown below this natural observational barrier. Unravelling the underlying three-dimensional flows is thus a primary goal for NASA’s ongoing Juno mission, which was launched in 2011. Here, we address the dynamics of large Jovian vortices using laboratory experiments complemented by theoretical and numerical analyses. We determine the generic force balance responsible for their three-dimensional pancake-like shape. From this, we define scaling laws for their horizontal and vertical aspect ratios as a function of the ambient rotation, stratification and zonal wind velocity. For the Great Red Spot in particular, our predicted horizontal dimensions agree well with measurements at the cloud level since the Voyager mission in 1979. We also predict the Great Red Spot’s thickness, which is inaccessible to direct observation. It has remained surprisingly constant despite the observed horizontal shrinking. Our results now await comparison with upcoming Juno observations.

木星的动力学塑造了它的云图案，但在这个自然观测障碍之下仍然很大程度上未知。因此，解开潜在的三维流动是 NASA 于 2011 年启动的朱诺号任务的主要目标。在这里，我们利用实验室实验并辅以理论和数值分析来解决大型木星涡流的动力学问题。我们确定了造成其三维煎饼形状的通用力平衡。由此，我们将其水平和垂直纵横比的缩放定律定义为环境旋转、分层和纬向风速的函数。特别是对于大红斑，我们预测的水平尺寸与自 1979 年航行者号任务以来在云层的测量结果非常吻合。我们还预测了大红斑的厚度，这是无法直接观测的。尽管观察到水平收缩，但它仍然令人惊讶地保持稳定。我们的结果现在等待与即将到来的朱诺观测进行比较。