Observations of hot-Jupiter atmospheres show large variations in the location of the “hot spot” and the amplitude of spectral features. Atmospheric flow simulations using the commonly employed forcing and initialization have generally produced a large, monolithic patch of nearly stationary hot area located eastward of the substellar point at high altitude. Here we perform high-resolution (T682) pseudospectral simulations that accurately capture small-scale eddies and waves inherent in hot-Jupiter atmospheres due to ageostrophy. The atmospheres contain a large number of intense storms over a wide range of scales, including the planetary scale. The latter sized storms dictate the large-scale spatial distribution and temporal variability of hot, as well as cold, regions over the planet. In addition, they exhibit quasi-periodic life cycles within multiple equilibrium states—all identifiable in the disk-integrated time series of the temperature flux.

对热木星大气的观测显示“热点”的位置和光谱特征的幅度变化很大。使用常用的强迫和初始化的大气流动模拟通常会产生一个大的、整体的、位于高海拔星下点以东的几乎静止的热区。在这里，我们执行高分辨率 (T682) 伪光谱模拟，可准确捕获由于地转现象而在热木星大气中固有的小尺度涡旋和波浪。大气层包含大量范围广泛的强烈风暴，包括行星尺度。后者大小的风暴决定了地球上热区和冷区的大规模空间分布和时间变化。此外，