Juno spacecraft peers deep into Jupiter's colorful belts and zones
https://phys.org/news/2021-10-juno-spac ... piter.html
by University of Leicester
A University of Leicester study of data captured in orbit around Jupiter has revealed new insights into what's happening deep beneath the gas giant's distinctive and colorful bands.
Data from the microwave radiometer carried by NASA's Juno spacecraft shows that Jupiter's banded pattern extends deep below the clouds, and that the appearance of Jupiter's belts and zones inverts near the base of the water clouds. Microwave light allows planetary scientists to gaze deep beneath Jupiter's colorful clouds, to understand the weather and climate in the warmer, darker, deeper layers.
At altitudes shallower than five bars of pressure (or around five times the average atmospheric pressure on Earth), the planet's belts shine brightly in microwave light, whereas the zones are dark. But everything changes at higher pressures, at altitudes deeper than 10 bars, giving scientists a glimpse of an unexpected reversal in the meteorology and circulation.
Dr. Leigh Fletcher, Associate Professor in Planetary Science at the University of Leicester and Participating Scientist for the Juno mission, is lead author of the study, published in the Journal of Geophysical Research-Planets. He said, "One of Juno's primary goals was to peer beneath the cloudy veil of Jupiter's atmosphere, and to probe the deeper, hidden layers.
"Our study has shown that those colorful bands are just the 'tip of the iceberg," and that the mid-latitude bands not only extend deep, but seem to change their nature the further down you go.
"We've been calling the transition zone the jovicline, and its discovery has only been made possible by Juno's microwave instrument."