Researchers on NASA’s Juno mission shared a 3D infrared movie depicting densely packed cyclones and anticyclones that permeate the north polar region of Jupiter.
The movie utilizes imagery derived from data collected by the Jovian Infrared Auroral Mapper (JIRAM) instrument aboard the Juno orbiter during its fourth pass over the gas giant.
“Imaging in the infrared part of the spectrum, JIRAM captures light emerging from deep inside Jupiter equally well, night or day,” the Juno scientists said.
“The instrument probes the weather layer down to 30 to 45 miles (50 to 70 km) below Jupiter’s cloud tops.”
“The imagery will help us understand the forces at work in the animation — a north pole dominated by a central cyclone surrounded by eight circumpolar cyclones with diameters ranging from 2,500 to 2,900 miles (4,000 to 4,600 km).”
In the animation, the yellow areas are warmer — or deeper into Jupiter’s atmosphere — and the dark areas are colder — or higher up in Jupiter’s atmosphere.
The highest ‘brightness temperature’ is about 9 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 13 degrees Celsius) and the lowest is minus 117 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 83 degrees Celsius).
This composite image, derived from data collected by the JIRAM instrument aboard NASA’s Juno orbiter, shows the central cyclone at Jupiter’s north pole and the eight cyclones that encircle it. JIRAM collects data in infrared, and the colors in this composite represent radiant heat: the yellow (thinner) clouds are about 9 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 13 degrees Celsius) in brightness temperature and the dark red (thickest) are around minus 117 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 83 degrees Celsius). Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / SwRI / ASI / INAF / JIRAM.
“Before Juno, we could only guess what Jupiter’s poles would look like,” said Dr. Alberto Adriani, Juno co-investigator from the Institute for Space Astrophysics and Planetology in Rome, Italy.
“Now, with Juno flying over the poles at a close distance it permits the collection of infrared imagery on Jupiter’s polar weather patterns and its massive cyclones in unprecedented spatial resolution.”
Dr. Adriani and colleagues presented their results today at the European Geosciences Union General Assembly in Vienna, Austria.
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