Scope of Jovian lightning observation by ground-based and spacecraft instruments

Statistics – Computation

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[0343] Atmospheric Composition And Structure / Planetary Atmospheres

Scientific paper

It is suggested by recent observational and theoretical studies that the thunderstorms, i.e., strong moist convective clouds in Jupiter’s atmosphere are very important not only as an essential ingredient of meteorology of Jupiter but also as a potentially very useful “probe” of the water abundance of the deep atmosphere, which is crucial to constrain the behavior of volatiles in early solar system. We would propose the lightning observation with properly designed optical device onboard Jovian system orbiter and with the ground-based telescope. Based on detailed analysis of cloud motions by Galileo orbiter, Gierasch et al. proposed that the thunderstorms can produce the small scale eddies and ultimately drive the belt/zone structure. Moreover, the belt zone structure helps the development of thunderstorms in the belt region in accordance with observation; the belt/zone structure and thunderstorms may be in a symbiotic relation. This framework is a refined version of shallow origin theory, but, although it is a very fantastic idea, quantitative verification remains to be done. Most recent numerical modeling by our group calculated all three types of cloud, i.e., H2O, NH3, and, NH4SH. One of the most important findings is the existence of distinct, quasi-periodic temporal variation of the convective cloud activity; explosion of cloud activity extending all over the computational domain occurs separated by quiet period of order of 10 days. Another surprising finding is that the period of the active/break cycle is roughly proportional to the amount of condensable component in the sub-cloud layer. This strong correspondence between the deep volatile abundance and temporal variability of cloud convection implies a new method to probe the deep atmosphere. We believe JGO with other optical equipments especially for atmospheric spectral imaging is the ideal platform for the lightning detector. Comparing quantitative lightning activity with ambient cloud motion and variations of estimated cloud height would result in significant progress of our understandings. Also we plan to carry out an optical measurement of lightning flashes with a high-speed camera and a photometer installed at a ground-based telescope which will be constructed by the end of 2010 at Nayoro city by Hokkaido University.

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