[5]   'Oval Q' in the South Tropical Region  (report, 2006 May 14)

The JUPOS chart shows two spots in STropZ converging, and it will be interesting for hi-res imagers to follow these to a possible merger in the next few weeks.  They are a bright white oval at L2 ~ 80, and a small dark spot p. it, shown in the attached set of images.  They are p. the GRS, with a S. Tropical Band forming on the S side.

It is now common for an anticyclonic oval like this to exist tens of degrees p. the GRS.  In previous apparitions we have recorded them forming or intensifying by mergers with retrograding SEBs jetstream spots, then they drift slowly towards the GRS as this one is doing, and eventually merge with GRS.  I suggest the arbitrary name 'oval Q' for an oval in this position, and we can name them Q1, Q2, etc. in numerical order, starting with the long-lived one which merged with the Red Spot Hollow in 1997.  But I am not sure how many we are up to now, so would just call this white spot 'oval Q' for now!

The small dark spot is probably also anticyclonic, given its latitude. If it survives to contact oval Q, in the next few weeks, we can expect them to merge, and perhaps observers in tropical and Australian locations will be able to record this in detail. Then oval Q will no doubt go on to merge with the GRS during solar conjunction, as usual!

John Rogers, 2006 May 14

(Follow-up: In fact the dark spot slid into the retrograding SEBs jetstream and was last seen on the N edge of oval Q, then disappeared in the dark region between oval Q and the GRS.  Oval Q remained as a small stationary white spot for the rest of the apparition.)