Cycles of activity in the Jovian atmosphere

Fletcher, Leigh N.

doi:10.1002/2017gl073806

Cited by 28 publications

(39 citation statements)

References 26 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…In Figure 3a and Figure Figure 4b shows that during those epochs the NTZB presents a chain of 5-µm-bright ovals, not present at the times where the NTZ is observed dark at 5 µm. The formation of these NTZB seems to occur in time intervals of 8-10 years, between 1984 and 2018, in agreement with previous studies (Rogers, 1995;Fletcher, 2017), with a missing NTZB in the BOLO-1 data from 1987. The exact periodicity of these changes is analyzed in section 6.…”

Section: North Temperate Regionsupporting

confidence: 92%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Jupiter’s Atmospheric Variability from Long-term Ground-based Observations at 5 μm

Antuñano

Fletcher

Orton

et al. 2019

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Jupiter's banded structure undergoes strong temporal variations, changing the visible and infrared appearance of the belts and zones in a complex and turbulent way due to physical processes that are not yet understood. In this study we use ground-based 5-µm infrared data captured between 1984 and 2018 by 8 different instruments mounted on the Infrared Telescope Facility in Hawai'i and on the Very Large Telescope in Chile to analyze and characterize the long-term variability of Jupiter's cloud-forming region at the 1-4 bar pressure level. The data show a large temporal variability mainly at the equatorial and tropical latitudes, with a smaller temporal variability at mid-latitudes. We also compare the 5-µm-bright and -dark regions with the locations of the visible zones and belts and we find that these regions are not always co-located, specially in the southern hemisphere. We also present Lomb-Scargle and Wavelet Transform analyzes in order to look for possible periodicities of the brightness changes that could help us understand their origin and predict future events. We see that some of these variations occur periodically in time intervals of 4-8 years. The reasons of these time intervals are not understood and we explore potential connections to both convective processes in the deeper weather layer and dynamical processes in the upper troposphere and stratosphere.Finally we perform a Principal Component analysis to reveal a clear anticorrelation on the 5-µm brightness changes between the North Equatorial Belt and the South Equatorial Belt, suggesting a possible connection between the changes in these belts.

show abstract

Section: North Temperate Regionsupporting

confidence: 92%

“…31.5-35.5 • N). These regions have been observed to undergo large temporal variations since the early 20 th century, where the NTB fades, revives and drifts in latitude (Peek, 1958;Rogers, 1995;Sánchez-Lavega et al, 1991, 2017.…”

Section: North Temperate Regionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Jupiter’s Atmospheric Variability from Long-term Ground-based Observations at 5 μm

Antuñano

Fletcher

Orton

et al. 2019

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…This TEXES dataset confirms that the wave tracked by Fletcher et al (2017) had a lower amplitude than that seen in 2014-2015 by TEXES: i.e., Fletcher et al were likely seeing the after-effects of the process that caused the thermal en-hancement near 270 • W in 2014-15. The cooling of the perturbation over a ∼1-2…”

Section: Temporal Evolution Of Acetylenesupporting

confidence: 68%

Assessing the long-term variability of acetylene and ethane in the stratosphere of Jupiter

Melin

Fletcher

Donnelly

et al. 2018

Icarus

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Acetylene (C 2 H 2 ) and ethane (C 2 H 6 ) are both produced in the stratosphere of Jupiter via photolysis of methane (CH 4 ). Despite this common source, the latitudinal distribution of the two species is radically different, with acetylene decreasing in abundance towards the pole, and ethane increasing towards the pole. We present six years of NASA IRTF TEXES mid-infrared observations of the zonally-averaged emission of methane, acetylene and ethane. We confirm that the latitudinal distributions of ethane and acetylene are decoupled, and that this is a persistent feature over multiple years. The acetylene distribution falls off towards the pole, peaking at ∼30• N with a volume mixing ratio (VMR) of ∼0.8 parts per million (ppm) at 1 mbar and still falling off at ±70• with a VMR of ∼0.3 ppm. The acetylene distributions are asymmetric on average, but as we move from 2013 to 2017, the zonally-averaged abundance becomes more symmetric about the equator. We suggest that both the short term changes in acetylene and its latitudinal asymmetry is driven by changes to the vertical stratospheric mixing, potentially related to propagating wave phenomena.Unlike acetylene, ethane has a symmetric distribution about the equator that increases toward the pole, with a peak mole fraction of ∼18 ppm at about ±50• latitude, with a minimum at the equator of ∼10 ppm at 1 mbar. The ethane distribution does not appear to respond to mid-latitude stratospheric mixing in the same way as acetylene, potentially as a result of the vertical gradient of is augmented by short-term dynamics, such as vertical mixing. Conversely, the long lifetime of ethane allows it to be transported to higher latitudes faster than it can be chemically depleted.

show abstract

“…However, elements of Jupiter's appearance have changed considerably since the Cassini flyby. We note in particular the dramatic reddening of the Great Red Spot (GRS) that has accompanied its progressive shrinking in size (Simon et al, 2014(Simon et al, , 2018, as well as progressive cycles of colour changes in the southern North Temperate Belt (NTB) as reviewed by Rogers (1995) and Fletcher (2017). These provide additional opportunities for constraint of the origin and altitude of chromophores in Jupiter's atmosphere that were not previously available.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 86%

Colour and tropospheric cloud structure of Jupiter from MUSE/VLT: Retrieving a universal chromophore

Braude

Irwin

Orton

et al. 2020

Icarus

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Recent work by Sromovsky et al. (2017, Icarus 291, 232-244) suggested that all red colour in Jupiter's atmosphere could be explained by a single colour-carrying compound, a so-called 'universal chromophore'. We tested this hypothesis on ground-based spectroscopic observations in the visible and near-infrared (480-930 nm) from the VLT/MUSE instrument between 2014 and 2018, retrieving a In addition, we retrieved a thick, global cloud layer at 1.4 ± 0.3 bars that was relatively spatially invariant in altitude across Jupiter. We found that this cloud layer was best characterised by a real refractive index close to that of ammonia ice in the belts and the Great Red Spot, and poorly characterised by a real refractive index of 1.6 or greater. This may be the result of ammonia cloud at higher altitude obscuring a deeper cloud layer of unknown composition.

show abstract

Cycles of activity in the Jovian atmosphere

Cited by 28 publications

References 26 publications

Jupiter’s Atmospheric Variability from Long-term Ground-based Observations at 5 μm

Jupiter’s Atmospheric Variability from Long-term Ground-based Observations at 5 μm

Assessing the long-term variability of acetylene and ethane in the stratosphere of Jupiter

Colour and tropospheric cloud structure of Jupiter from MUSE/VLT: Retrieving a universal chromophore

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About