Analytical Estimation of the Width of Hadley Cells in the Solar System

Abstract: The angular width of Earth's Hadley cell has been related to the square root of the product of the tropospheric thickness and the buoyancy frequency, and to the inverse of the square root of the angular velocity and the planetary radius. Here, this formulation is examined for other planetary bodies in the solar system. Generally good consistency is found between predictions and observations for terrestrial planets provided the pressure scale height rather than the tropopause height is assumed to determine the thickness of the tropospheric circulation. For gas giants, the relevant thickness is deeper than the scale height, possibly due to the internal heat produced by Kelvin-Helmholtz contraction. On Earth, latent heat release within deep convection may play a similar role in deepening and widening the Hadley Cell.