Jupiters North Equatorial Belt Expansion and Thermal Wave Activity Ahead of Junos Arrival

The dark colors of Jupiter's North Equatorial Belt (NEB, 7-17degN) appeared to expand northward into the neighboring one in 2015, consistent with a 35 year cycle. Inversions of thermal-IR imaging from the Very Large Telescope revealed a moderate warming and reduction of aerosol opacity at the c...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Geophysical research letters 2017-07, Vol.44 (14), p.7140-7148
Main Authors: Fletcher, L. N., Orton, G. S., Sinclair, J. A., Donnelly, P., Melin, H., Rogers, J. H., Greathouse, T. K., Kasaba, Y., Fujiyoshi, T., Sato, T. M., Fernandes, J., Irwin, P. G. J., Giles, R. S., Simon, A. A., Wong, M. H., Vedovato, M.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Amplitude
Astronomy
atmospheres, chemistry
atmospheres, dynamics
Coverings
Drying
Earth
Earth atmosphere
Earth orbits
Equator
Expansion
Haze
Identification
Imaging techniques
infrared
Infrared imaging
Inversions
Jupiter
Jupiter atmosphere
Jupiter probes
Northern Hemisphere
Opacity
Reflectance
remote sensing
Space missions
Spawning
Stratosphere
Thermal imaging
Troposphere
Very Large Telescope
Wave number
Wavelengths
Zonal flow
Zonal flow (meteorology)
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The dark colors of Jupiter's North Equatorial Belt (NEB, 7-17degN) appeared to expand northward into the neighboring one in 2015, consistent with a 35 year cycle. Inversions of thermal-IR imaging from the Very Large Telescope revealed a moderate warming and reduction of aerosol opacity at the cloud tops at 17-20degN, suggesting subsidence and drying in the expanded sector. Two new thermal waves were identified during this period: (i) an upper tropospheric thermal wave (wave number 16-17, amplitude 2.5 K at 170 mbar) in the mid-NEB that was anticorrelated with haze reflectivity; and (ii) a stratospheric wave (wave number 13-14, amplitude 7.3 K at 5 mbar) at 20-30degN. Both were quasi-stationary, confined to regions of eastward zonal flow, and are morphologically similar to waves observed during previous expansion events.
ISSN:0094-8276
1944-8007
DOI:10.1002/2017GL073383