image: The VLA radio map of the region around the Great Red Spot in Jupiter's atmosphere shows complex upwellings and downwellings of ammonia gas (upper map), that shape the colorful cloud layers seen in the approximately true-color Hubble map (lower map). Two radio wavelengths are shown in blue (2 cm) and gold (3 cm), probing depths of 30-90 kilometers below the clouds. This material relates to a paper that appeared in the June 3, 2016, issue of <i>Science</i>, published by AAAS. The paper, by I. de Pater at University of California, Berkeley in Berkeley, Calif., and colleagues was titled, "Peering through Jupiter's clouds with radio spectral imaging." view more
Credit: Michael H. Wong, Imke de Pater (UC Berkeley), Robert J. Sault (Univ. Melbourne). Optical: NASA, ESA, A.A. Simon (GSFC), M.H. Wong (UC Berkeley), and G.S. Orton (JPL-Caltech)
Using radio waves, astronomers have been able to peer through Jupiter's thick clouds, gaining insights into the gas giant's atmosphere, a new study reports. Previous radio studies of the planet have been limited to analyzing its properties at specific latitudes, but the new observations offer a widespread, comprehensive view of activity below the clouds. To acquire such detailed data, Imke de Pater and colleagues used the recently upgraded Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) observatory, detecting a range of radio frequencies from Jupiter's atmosphere. This revealed a number of hot spots, "dry" regions that are devoid of clouds and condensable gases, particularly opaque billows of ammonia. Analysis of the new VLA data suggests that areas where this ammonia is concentrated extend right up to the base of where Jupiter's clouds form. The plumes of rising ammonia swell up in wave patterns, a signature of motion deep within the atmosphere. The authors say that the ammonia gas in these plumes will condense out at higher altitudes, which could explain the ammonia ice clouds detected by the Galileo spacecraft in the 1990s. These results shed more light on the atmospheres of gas giants, and will provide important context for the Juno spacecraft, which is scheduled to arrive at Jupiter in July 2016.
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Journal
Science