A unified basis is proposed to explain the formation of intense large-scale long-lived vortices in the planet atmospheres.

Back in the 1980s, two hypotheses appeared: the turbulent vortex dynamo theory (Moiseev et al. 1983) with possible application to describe the formation of hurricanes/typhoons in the tropical atmosphere, and the universal concept of helical cyclogenesis (Levich and Tsvetkov, 1985), covering the vortex generation processes in the tropical, middle, and polar latitudes of the Earth. The hypotheses were advanced independently and aimed at explaining the formation of intense large-scale long-lived atmospheric vortices due to the upscale energy cascade in helical atmospheric turbulence. Recently, a new contribution to the development of the turbulent vortex dynamo theory was made by Kopp et al. (GAFD, 2021), who substantiated the dynamo effect for a rotating stratified moist atmosphere and took into account the tilt of the planet's rotation axis. The latter allows the theory to be applicable for a specific planet, e.g., in the Solar System.

The substantiation of the dynamo effect in a real atmosphere has become possible after the discovery of vortical cloud deep convection ‒ Vortical Hot Towers (VHTs) in the tropical zone (Hendricks et al., 2004). The implementation of turbulent vortex dynamo in the Earth's tropical atmosphere, based on the key role of VHTs in the excitation and maintenance of large-scale helical-vortex instability, was shown in a series of collaborative Russian-American works (Levina and Montgomery, 2009‒2015), which were reviewed in (Levina, 2018).

In the present work, theoretical and numerical estimations for the effects of the turbulent vortex dynamo in the Earth’s and Jovian atmospheres are given and compared. Perspectives of research on helical cyclogenesis in the atmospheres of the Earth and planets-giants, Jupiter, Saturn, and Neptune are discussed. The work was supported by the research project “Monitoring” No. 01.20.0.2.00164.