Strongly irradiated giant exoplanets commonly develop broad eastward equatorial <atmospheric superrotation>, producing an eastward thermal hot-spot offset. Their large permanent day-night forcing also drives global overturning, waves, and imperfect heat redistribution measured by phase curves. Jets, vortices, clouds, and storms can vary with time and produce changing phase curves or eclipse maps.

Solar-System giants receive much weaker day-night forcing, rotate rapidly, and often emit substantial internal heat. They consequently show many narrow alternating zonal jets, long-lived vortices such as Jupiter's Great Red Spot, moist convection, and banded clouds. Both groups exhibit waves, jets, storms, and equatorial dynamics, but hot Jupiters are dominated by stellar irradiation and often have fewer, broader jets, whereas Solar-System giants are shaped more strongly by rapid rotation and internal convection.

Solution

Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge / 2025 / iii / Paper 315 / 4 / c / Solution

{wiki=Super-rotation}

Atmospheric superrotation is an eastward equatorial jet whose angular momentum per unit mass exceeds that of the underlying solid body at the equator. Hot-Jupiter waves can transport angular momentum into the equatorial region and maintain such a jet.


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 Incoming links: Atmospheric superrotation