Natural superrotation of a rarefied planetary atmosphere

We consider the kinetics of a rarefied rotating planetary atmosphere. The spatial distributions of the atmospheric-gas density and mean angular velocity were determined by analyzing the exact solution of the two-dimensional kinetic equation. We show that the angular velocity of the gas at some distance from the planet could be higher than that in the initial layer starting from which the atmosphere is rarefied. Our model calculations elucidate the superrotation mechanism under consideration.