Deep Clouds on Jupiter
Jupiter’s atmospheric water abundance is a highly important cosmochemical parameter that is linked to processes of planetary formation, weather, and circulation. Remote sensing and in situ measurement attempts still leave room for substantial improvements to our knowledge of Jupiter’s atmospheric wa...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2023-01-01
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| Series: | Remote Sensing |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/15/3/702 |
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| author | Michael H. Wong Gordon L. Bjoraker Charles Goullaud Andrew W. Stephens Statia H. Luszcz-Cook Sushil K. Atreya Imke de Pater Shannon T. Brown |
| author_facet | Michael H. Wong Gordon L. Bjoraker Charles Goullaud Andrew W. Stephens Statia H. Luszcz-Cook Sushil K. Atreya Imke de Pater Shannon T. Brown |
| author_sort | Michael H. Wong |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Jupiter’s atmospheric water abundance is a highly important cosmochemical parameter that is linked to processes of planetary formation, weather, and circulation. Remote sensing and in situ measurement attempts still leave room for substantial improvements to our knowledge of Jupiter’s atmospheric water abundance. With the motivation to advance our understanding of water in Jupiter’s atmosphere, we investigate observations and models of deep clouds. We discuss deep clouds in isolated convective storms (including a unique storm site in the North Equatorial Belt that episodically erupted in 2021–2022), cyclonic vortices, and northern high-latitude regions, as seen in Hubble Space Telescope visible/near-infrared imaging data. We evaluate the imaging data in continuum and weak methane band (727 nm) filters by comparison with radiative transfer simulations, 5 micron imaging (Gemini), and 5 micron spectroscopy (Keck), and conclude that the weak methane band imaging approach mostly detects variation in the upper cloud and haze opacity, although sensitivity to deeper cloud layers can be exploited if upper cloud/haze opacity can be separately constrained. The cloud-base water abundance is a function of cloud-base temperature, which must be estimated by extrapolating 0.5-bar observed temperatures downward to the condensation region near 5 bar. For a given cloud base pressure, the largest source of uncertainty on the local water abundance comes from the temperature gradient used for the extrapolation. We conclude that spatially resolved spectra to determine cloud heights—collected simultaneously with spatially-resolved mid-infrared spectra to determine 500-mbar temperatures and with improved lapse rate estimates—would be needed to answer the following very challenging question: Can observations of deep water clouds on Jupiter be used to constrain the atmospheric water abundance? |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-11T09:26:46Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-08a5c9c548ee42f083e157af4a27c7f1 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2072-4292 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-11T09:26:46Z |
| publishDate | 2023-01-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Remote Sensing |
| spelling | doaj.art-08a5c9c548ee42f083e157af4a27c7f12023-11-16T17:53:01ZengMDPI AGRemote Sensing2072-42922023-01-0115370210.3390/rs15030702Deep Clouds on JupiterMichael H. Wong0Gordon L. Bjoraker1Charles Goullaud2Andrew W. Stephens3Statia H. Luszcz-Cook4Sushil K. Atreya5Imke de Pater6Shannon T. Brown7Center for Integrative Planetary Science, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USANASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Code 693, Greenbelt, MD 20771, USACenter for Integrative Planetary Science, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USAGemini Observatory, NSF’s NOIRLab, Hilo, HI 96720, USAColumbia Astrophysics Laboratory, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027, USAClimate and Space Sciences and Engineering, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USACenter for Integrative Planetary Science, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USAJet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91109, USAJupiter’s atmospheric water abundance is a highly important cosmochemical parameter that is linked to processes of planetary formation, weather, and circulation. Remote sensing and in situ measurement attempts still leave room for substantial improvements to our knowledge of Jupiter’s atmospheric water abundance. With the motivation to advance our understanding of water in Jupiter’s atmosphere, we investigate observations and models of deep clouds. We discuss deep clouds in isolated convective storms (including a unique storm site in the North Equatorial Belt that episodically erupted in 2021–2022), cyclonic vortices, and northern high-latitude regions, as seen in Hubble Space Telescope visible/near-infrared imaging data. We evaluate the imaging data in continuum and weak methane band (727 nm) filters by comparison with radiative transfer simulations, 5 micron imaging (Gemini), and 5 micron spectroscopy (Keck), and conclude that the weak methane band imaging approach mostly detects variation in the upper cloud and haze opacity, although sensitivity to deeper cloud layers can be exploited if upper cloud/haze opacity can be separately constrained. The cloud-base water abundance is a function of cloud-base temperature, which must be estimated by extrapolating 0.5-bar observed temperatures downward to the condensation region near 5 bar. For a given cloud base pressure, the largest source of uncertainty on the local water abundance comes from the temperature gradient used for the extrapolation. We conclude that spatially resolved spectra to determine cloud heights—collected simultaneously with spatially-resolved mid-infrared spectra to determine 500-mbar temperatures and with improved lapse rate estimates—would be needed to answer the following very challenging question: Can observations of deep water clouds on Jupiter be used to constrain the atmospheric water abundance?https://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/15/3/702JupiteratmosphereHubble Space Telescope observationsinfrared observationsradiative transfermeteorology |
| spellingShingle | Michael H. Wong Gordon L. Bjoraker Charles Goullaud Andrew W. Stephens Statia H. Luszcz-Cook Sushil K. Atreya Imke de Pater Shannon T. Brown Deep Clouds on Jupiter Remote Sensing Jupiter atmosphere Hubble Space Telescope observations infrared observations radiative transfer meteorology |
| title | Deep Clouds on Jupiter |
| title_full | Deep Clouds on Jupiter |
| title_fullStr | Deep Clouds on Jupiter |
| title_full_unstemmed | Deep Clouds on Jupiter |
| title_short | Deep Clouds on Jupiter |
| title_sort | deep clouds on jupiter |
| topic | Jupiter atmosphere Hubble Space Telescope observations infrared observations radiative transfer meteorology |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/15/3/702 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT michaelhwong deepcloudsonjupiter AT gordonlbjoraker deepcloudsonjupiter AT charlesgoullaud deepcloudsonjupiter AT andrewwstephens deepcloudsonjupiter AT statiahluszczcook deepcloudsonjupiter AT sushilkatreya deepcloudsonjupiter AT imkedepater deepcloudsonjupiter AT shannontbrown deepcloudsonjupiter |