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Published December 2016 | public
Journal Article

The organization of Jupiter's upper tropospheric temperature structure and its evolution, 1996–1997

Abstract

High signal-to-noise images of Jupiter were made at wavelengths between 13.2 and 22.8 µm in five separate observing runs between 1996 June and 1997 November at the NASA Infrared Telescope Facility. Maps of Jupiter's upper-tropospheric temperatures at pressures of 100 and 400 mbar were made from these images. We use the relatively frequent, well sampled data sets to examine in detail the short-term evolution of the temperature structure. Our 2–6 month sampling periods demonstrate that the longitudinal temperature structures evolve significantly in these short periods and exhibit wave features. Using a three-dimensional general circulation model simulation of Jupiter's upper atmosphere, we show that the thermal structures are consistent with convectively generated Rossby waves that propagate upward from the lower to the upper atmosphere.

Additional Information

© 2016 Elsevier Inc. Received 29 July 2015, Revised 16 July 2016, Accepted 25 July 2016, Available online 3 August 2016. The authors wish to thank the staff of the NASA Infrared Telescope Facility for their support of the observations reported here. BMF acknowledges support from NASA/National Research Council Associateships Program. GSO acknowledges support from the Galileo mission. This work was also supported by the NASA Planetary Astronomy, Planetary Atmospheres, and Outer Planets Research Programs (grant NNX10AQ05G). It was performed at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory/California Institute of Technology under contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

Additional details

Created:
August 22, 2023
Modified:
October 20, 2023