A Jovian Cloud Structure Consistent with Both Galileo Probe and HST Observations

Details A Jovian Cloud Structure Consistent with Both Galileo Probe and HST Observations A Jovian Cloud Structure Consistent with Both Galileo Probe and HST Observations

Nov 2001

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2001dps....33.0703s&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, DPS Meeting #33, #07.03; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 33, p.1032

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

Scientific paper

The 1995 Galileo Probe sampled Jupiter's atmosphere at the edge of a 5-μ m hot spot, where it found little cloud opacity above the 700-mb level. Only τ = 1-2 at λ = 0.5 μ m was inferred from Net Flux Radiometer observations (Sromovsky et al. 1998, JGR 103), in seeming conflict with Chanover et al. (1997, Icarus 128, 294-305) who inferred τ = 6-8 above the 700-mb level (at λ ~0.9 μ m) from 893-nm and 953-nm WFPC2 observations of a group of hot spots. We found a possible resolution to this conflict by reinterpretation of the HST observations with Probe-consistent assumptions about the vertical distribution of cloud particles. For two physically thin cloud layers, an upper (putative NH3) cloud with adjustable optical depth and effective pressure (p {eff}<440 mb) and a mid-level (putative NH4SH) cloud with adjustable optical depth but a fixed pressure of 1.2 bars chosen to match Galileo Probe Nephelometer observations (Ragent et et al. 1998. JGR 103), we find excellent fits to October 1995 WFPC2 observations when the upper cloud in dark regions (5-μ m hot spots) has τ = 1.3-1.9 at 0.9 μ m and an effective pressure of 240 mb - 270 mb, and excellent fits to visibly bright regions between hot spots for τ = 1.6-2.2 and p {eff} = 250 mb - 290 mb. For May 1996 HST observations we found slightly higher values for both parameters. We find that the main variable parameter in the cloud structure is the opacity of the middle cloud, which ranges from τ = 1-2 in dark regions, to τ = 8-30 in bright regions. This work is based on NASA/ESA HST observations, obtained at STScI, operated by AURA under NASA contract No. NAS5-26555. Support was provided by NASA through STScI grant HST-AR-09220.01 and JSDAP grant NAG5-6788.

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