Time Variability Of The Equatorial Haze In Jupiter's Upper Troposphere

Details Time Variability Of The Equatorial Haze In Jupiter's Upper Troposphere Time Variability Of The Equatorial Haze In Jupiter's Upper Troposphere

Sep 2009

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2009dps....41.1005w&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #41, #10.05

Physics

Optics

Scientific paper

Last year we reported a shift in Jupiter's equatorial upper tropospheric haze: its peak zonal brightness had shifted from about 5 deg north (planetographic) to the equator, during the timespan from 2005 to 2008. This shift, based on data from HST/NICMOS and the VLT's Multi-Conjugate Adaptive Optics demonstrator, took place during Jupiter's global upheaval. But is variation in this equatorial haze an isolated occurence associated with the upheaval, or is it more commonplace? To address this question, we assembled an archival HST/WFPC2 data set of methane-band images extending from 1995 to 2008. We find that the maximum haze reflectivity remained stable at 7 deg north since 1995, but dropped to the equator in the 1999 to 2000 timeframe. This prior drop was not related to a known Jovian upheaval. A gap in the archived WFPC2 data unfortunately makes the evolution of the haze unclear between 2000 and 2005.
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But the archival dataset does demonstrate a timescale for haze reflectivity evolution of 500 days, with an amplitude of 20-30%. Two formation mechanisms have been proposed for this haze: lofting of tropospheric cloud particles into the stable upper troposphere, and photolysis of ammonia leading to condensed hydrazine. Our 1-dimensional vertical transport model demonstrates that the observed variability implies a nearly complete shut-off of the cloud lofting mechanism, if it is the dominant upper tropospheric haze source at the equator. The predominance of either source mechanism has yet to be conclusively demonstrated, so these measurements of temporal variation may help lead to the answer.
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Also, something impacted Jupiter 3-4 days before the abstract submission deadline.
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Support for this research was provided by STScI, which is operated by AURA under NASA contract.

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