Atmospheric sub-rotation

Atmospheric sub-rotation or subrotation is the phenomenon where a planet's atmosphere rotates slower than the planet itself. It can be observed in the averaged motion of the Earth's troposphere and on the ice giant planets Neptune and Uranus.[1][2][3]

The reverse phenomenon is known as atmospheric super-rotation.

References

  1. ^ Laraia, Anne L.; Schneider, Tapio (1 November 2015). "Superrotation in Terrestrial Atmospheres". Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences. 72 (11): 4281–4296. doi:10.1175/JAS-D-15-0030.1. ISSN 0022-4928.
  2. ^ Duer-Milner, Keren; Gavriel, Nimrod; Galanti, Eli; Tziperman, Eli; Kaspi, Yohai (10 October 2025). "From gas to ice giants: A unified mechanism for equatorial jets". Science Advances. 11 (41) eads8899. doi:10.1126/sciadv.ads8899. ISSN 2375-2548. PMC 12513438. PMID 41071886.
  3. ^ Mendenhall, Brooks (6 November 2025). "Why do giant planet jet streams blow in opposite directions?". Astronomy Magazine. Retrieved 5 February 2026.

See also

  • The Wind from Nowhere, a science fiction novel by J. G. Ballard in which the Earth's atmosphere starts to increase its subrotation speed without reason


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