Explore banded gas-giant cloud belts with a Great Red Spot teaching oval about 16,000 km wide - the atmosphere story a plain Jupiter sphere skips.
Play spin turns the cloud deck on an educational beat near Jupiter's about 9h55m rotation (compressed for eyes).
Great Red Spot about 16,000 km wide. Jet and storm winds often 100-150 m/s. Solar System 3D Explorer paints Jupiter as a plain sphere - this page is the banded atmosphere and storm oval.
Gas Giant Atmosphere 3D Explorer
Explore banded gas-giant cloud belts with a Great Red Spot teaching oval about 16,000 km wide - the atmosphere story a plain Jupiter sphere skips.
Drag to orbit the view, scroll or pinch to zoom, and press Play spin. Bands and Great Red Spot fill the facts panel.
The facts panel lists rotation about 9h55m, Great Red Spot about 16,000 km, and winds often 100-150 m/s.
- Latitude band shader for belts and zones
- Great Red Spot teaching oval ~16,000 km wide
- Play / Pause spin on a readable educational beat
- Panel literacy for rotation, spot size, and wind order
- Distinct from Solar System 3D Explorer's plain Jupiter sphere
- Runs fully in the browser with the vendored three.js engine - no account, no upload
Teachers use it to name belts versus the Red Spot, students scrub the spin while reading 16,000 km, and curious readers compare this atmosphere view to Saturn Rings 3D Explorer.
| Quantity | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Rotation period | about 9h55m | Jupiter System III order of magnitude |
| Great Red Spot width | about 16,000 km | Published storm-size summaries |
| Jet / storm winds | often 100-150 m/s | Observational wind-order range |
Everything renders on your device with WebGL. The 3D engine loads once (about 0.7 MB) and is cached; no scene data is sent to a server.
The scene is an educational visualization - bands and the oval are shader art sized to published figures, not a Navier-Stokes weather model or spacecraft mosaic.
For a step-by-step walkthrough, read the Gas Giant Atmosphere 3D Explorer step-by-step guide. The Space 3D collection also includes a Solar System 3D Explorer for planet tours and a Saturn Rings 3D Explorer for ring structure.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does Gas Giant Atmosphere 3D Explorer show?
A Jupiter-like banded atmosphere with a Great Red Spot teaching oval about 16,000 km wide, plus a facts table for about 9h55m rotation and winds often 100-150 m/s.
How is this different from Solar System 3D Explorer?
Solar System 3D Explorer shows Jupiter as a plain colored sphere among the planets. Gas Giant Atmosphere 3D Explorer focuses on belts, zones, and the Red Spot.
How wide is the Great Red Spot?
About 16,000 km in this teaching table - a published order of magnitude. The real oval slowly changes size over decades.
How fast does Jupiter rotate?
About 9 hours 55 minutes for the System III period used in classroom summaries - the scene compresses that into a readable spin.
Is this a weather simulation?
No. Bands and the oval are educational shader art. It does not integrate Navier-Stokes or publish a forecast.
What do the wind figures mean?
Jet and storm winds often fall in the 100-150 m/s range - order-of-magnitude shear around the cloud decks, not a live wind map.