There were many so called "superstorms" that occurred within the last century and even more cataclysmic the superstorms of the past. But really, what is the real definition of a superstorm. A tropical depression becomes a tropical storm when its winds exceeds 61.15 mph but does not reach 119 mph. When a tropical storm reaches 119 mph of wind its going to be classified as a hurricane. Take another step forward a hypercane is simply a hurricane at maximum capacities, but happens under extreme requirements. What about a storm? When does a simple storm get classified as a superstorm? What is a superstorm's definition?
There are several types of classified storms. There is the: single cell storm, severe storm, multicell severe storm, supercell storm, multi-supercell storm, Mesoscale Convective Systems (MCS), Mesoscale Convective Complexes (MCC), and squall lines. There is no formal definition of a superstorm ... as far as I know. The closest thing that can be considered a superstorm would be a Mesoscale Convective Complex (MCC) or a multi-supercell storm. In both cases, the storm can span 1000's of kilometers and is known to spawn many tornadoes and be very powerful and destructive. Solar flares (or Coronal Mass Ejections) are usually regarded as superstorms because of it's effects but I don't think there is any true definition of it. I guess a cataclysmic storm would be the best definition for a superstorm ... something that is ever-persistant and very large and powerful enough to change the look of an entire area.
Yes, the media might talk about a 'super-storm', and astronomers may use the term with regards major solar flares, but from a meteorological point of view there is no such thing.
Actually, I suppose the Red Spot on Jupiter could be described as a superstorm? It has been raging for, er, centuries.....
The term is arbitrary. I've heard of the Great Red Spot on Jupiter being called both a superstorm and just a storm.
Ever wonder why the Great Red Spot seems just like a single supercell without swirling clouds all around it?
There are clouds swirling around the it; Jovian cloud cover is multi-layered and continuous, so the clouds look like an unbroken surface when viewed on the scale of the Great Red Spot. It been seen to absorb smaller storms around it, thereby feeding on their energy. Little eddys and gyres on the edge are subsumed into the main flow. While other Jovian storms persist only a matter of weeks, the Great Red Spot has been around longer than we've had telescopes to observe it. No-one knos how old it is. We cannot safely say, though, that once a storm on a giant planet reaches a certain scale it will necessarily become self-sustaining in this way. Voyager 2 imaged a Great Dark Spot on Neptune in 1989, comparable to the Jovian monster in relative size. A few years later, the Hubble Space Telescope showed that this Dark Spot had vanished.
As far as we know ... the Great red Spot has been self-sustaining for at least 400 years. There is an assumption that suggests the reason why the storm hasn't died out like many observed storms here on earth is because there is no land on Jupiter. Appaently, the storm is being continuously driven by Jupiter's internal heat source. And to add to this, there is a couple of interesting facts about the Red Spot that is striking. The Great Red Spot is an anti-cyclonic (high pressure) storm and is 8 Km taller than the neighbouring clouds. This is something that isn't seen on Earth in either case.
I am wondering how the Great Dark Spot dissipated so fast. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
Well, Neptune's atmosphere does seem almost frictionless: cloud motions indicate winds which could actually break the sound barrier, on a planet which receives less than 1% the Solar energy per unit area that Earth receives. So you'd expect weather patterns to retain their energy and last a long time. On the flip side, though, a large rotating cell like the Dark Spot would be less likely to resist being "flattened out" in the overwhelming atmospheric circulation induced by the planet's rotation. Without strong friction between large masses of air, the big vortices would have less cohesion. Just my idea.
From what I can find, the Great Dark Spot on Nepture may not actually be a storm ... it is thought that the spot was a hole similar to the hole in Earth's ozone layer. However what's interesting about this "hole" (though I still think of it as a storm) is that the winds of this spot were the fastest recored on any other planet ... with a maintained speed of 666.66 m/s (or about 2x the speed of sound). Of course, as Starthane stated, Neptune's atmosphere seems almost frictionless so it makes sense that wind speeds could reach that speed on that planet. You could never expect anything like that here on Earth.
Ever wondered if there is a size limit to storms on each corresponding planet? Especially here on Earth.
I should think the ultimate limit would be set by the planet's actual radius! It might seem logical to think that any super storm system would have to stay confined to either the northern or southern hemisphere, because the atmosphere above each rotates separately. Mars, however - with a rotation period almost identical to Earth's -has been seen to experience dust storms which cover virtually the entire globe. That must indicate that all the wind patterns there are linked, despite the thinness of the atmosphere. Perhaps that very tenuosity is the reason that one disturbance can spread all over Mars: in a much denser atmosphere, like ours (and certainly Jupiter's), the prevailing circulation patterns must be more firmly entrenched, and less susceptible to being overwhelmed by random changes.
I thought Mars 'global' dust storms are made up of smaller regions of singular duststorms that continuously get updrafted from each of their point of origin? And I myself not knowing much about extraterrestrial climatology wonders how cyclones on Mars are formed. The same way a depression is formed on this planet? Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
Many scientists believe that the storms on Mars are created in similar fashion to those seen on Earth. It doesn't say much but it is the closest in explaining the phenomena.
If a hypercane ever existed. it would be one sixth the size of a normal hurricane. Strange how at maximum velocities the hurricane shrinked quite a bit.
The hurricane is the largest "organized" storm system on Earth. However, it happens often that a collection of disorganized storm system becomes larger than a hurricane. They just not as powerful as a hurricane.
