The Vertical and Dynamical Structure of the Great Red SPOT as Determined by Galileo/NIMS

Details The Vertical and Dynamical Structure of the Great Red SPOT as Determined by Galileo/NIMS The Vertical and Dynamical Structure of the Great Red SPOT as Determined by Galileo/NIMS

Sep 1996

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1996dps....28.2112b&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #28, #21.12; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 28, p.1136

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

Scientific paper

Multi-spectral imagery of Jupiter's Great Red Spot (GRS) acquired over three jovian rotations by the Galileo/NIMS are used to constrain the vertical aerosol structure and the windfield in and around this most- prominent of anti-cyclonic features. A wide range of atmospheric absorption strengths are covered by the 23 selected NIMS bandpasses, - which include weak, medium, and strong methane and hydrogen absorptions at 0.734, 0.898, 1.761, 2.042, 2.094, 2.168, and 2.375 mu m - allowing NIMS to isolate in altitude prominent aspects of the GRS. The apparent size of the GRS varies markedly with bandpass, its linear dimensions shrinking to about 3/4 its visual size in moderate absorption wavelengths, indicating a bulk elliptical-"wedding cake" shape in its overall three-dimensional cloud structure. The GRS disappears at 2.375 mu m, the strongest absorption bandpass, showing that the GRS is tropospheric. Along the eastern edge, a bright "leading edge"feature is observed on all three rotations, most prominent in all continuum bandpasses from 0.759 to 2.73 mu m, indicative of a relatively low-lying yet optically-thick cloud. Its persistence is suggestive of formation by orographic uplift. The most-prominent continuum feature lies 4.5deg to the west of the eastern edge, about midway to the center of the GRS. Preliminary analysis of this feature - utilizing a 2-cloud model with a particle-to-gas scale height of unity within the uppermost ammonia cloud - indicates a cloudtop near 260 mbar, and opacities of ~ 5.4 and 0.51 at 0.8 and 2.1 mu m, respectively, corresponding to a mean particle size for Mie scatterers of 0.375 mu m and an ammonia mass column density of ~ 70 mu gm/cm(2) . With the same aerosol number density, the cloudtop of the "leading edge" feature is ~ 60 mbars ( ~ 3 km) deeper. Just outside the GRS, the same model yields a cloudtop ~ 3 km deeper still, i.e., near 380 mbar.

Affiliated with

Also associated with

No associations

Rating

The Vertical and Dynamical Structure of the Great Red SPOT as Determined by Galileo/NIMS does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.

If you have personal experience with The Vertical and Dynamical Structure of the Great Red SPOT as Determined by Galileo/NIMS, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and The Vertical and Dynamical Structure of the Great Red SPOT as Determined by Galileo/NIMS will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

Comments { 0 }

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-1462019