Turbulent flow in rotating spheres is fascinating, from the little I've read in relation to modeling deterministic systems in chaos theory. It doesn't surprise me all that much that we see drastic changes from time to time, although I'd really like to know exactly what combination of factors caused it. When computing power got to the point that this kind of system could be modeled, some of the flows in systems with combinations of fluids of varying densities formed their own spots, much like the great red spot, and lines around the surface formed and dissipated. I can't remember the paper that came up with the simulated red spot, and I'm not at work so I can't browse for it right now, but I'll try to find it next week.
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