Multi-instrument sounding of a Jovian thunderstorm from Juno

Creators: Brueshaber, Shawn R.¹; Zhang, Zhimeng²; Rogers, John H.³; Eichstädt, Gerald⁴; Orton, Glenn S.⁵; Grassi, Davide⁶; Fletcher, Leigh N.⁷; Li, Cheng⁸; Mizumoto, Shinji⁹; Mura, Alessandro⁶; Oyafuso, Fabiano⁵; Sankar, Ramanakumar¹⁰; Wong, Michael H.^{10, 11}; Hansen, Candice J.¹²; Levin, Steven⁵; Bolton, Scott¹³

1. Michigan Technological University
2. California Institute of Technology
3. British Astronomical Association
4. Independent Scholar, Stuttgart, BW, Germany
5. Jet Propulsion Lab
6. Institute for Space Astrophysics and Planetology
7. University of Leicester
8. University of Michigan–Ann Arbor
9. Association of Lunar and Planetary Observers (ALPO)., Japan
10. University of California, Berkeley
11. Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence
12. Planetary Science Institute
13. Southwest Research Institute

Abstract

Thunderstorms play a significant role in transporting heat from the deep interior to space on giant planets. We present observations of a 3,400-km wide thunderstorm complex in Jupiter’s North Equatorial Belt (NEB) during the 38th periapse of the Juno spacecraft on 29 Nov. 2021. Data were acquired by the Microwave Radiometer (MWR), the visible light JunoCam instrument, the Jovian InfraRed Auroral Mapper (JIRAM), and from supporting Earth-based imaging. This was the first time Juno was able to observe a thunderstorm at suitably low emission angles with multiple instruments at close range (5,690 km), making it the most comprehensive close-up assessment of a Jovian thunderstorm to date. Lightning detection confirmed the Storm’s vigorous convective nature. MWR brightness temperatures indicate this Storm appears to be wholly contained within the weather layer, i.e., no deeper than the expected base of the H₂O cloud, and not as a result of any detected deep-seated upwelling beneath the H₂O cloud base. Earth-based observations tracked it over its 2-week lifespan, providing evidence that mesoscale-to-synoptic-scale forcing mechanisms were involved in sustaining it, including the intriguing possibility of a humidity front (‘dryline’), a sharp gradient in the vapor abundance, promoting lift along a concentrated region.

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Acknowledgement

This work was performed under a Juno subcontract to Western Michigan University from the Southwest Research Institute; at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under a contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Fletcher was supported by STFC Consolidated Grant reference ST/W00089X/1. For the purpose of open access, the author has applied a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license to the Author Accepted Manuscript version arising from this submission. Li was supported by the NASA Juno Program, under NASA Contract NNM06AA75C469 from the Marshall Space Flight Center supporting the Juno Mission Science team, through subcontract Q99063JAR to the University of Michigan from the Southwest Research Institute. JIRAM is funded by ASI with contract 2016-353 23-H.3 (addendum). This research has made use of the USGS Integrated Software for Imagers and Spectrometers (ISIS). The authors were Visiting Astronomers at the Infrared Telescope Facility, which is operated by the University of Hawaii under contract 80HQTR19D0030 with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

Contributions

Shawn R. Brueshaber: Writing – review & editing, Writing – original draft, Methodology, Investigation, Formal analysis, Conceptualization. Zhimeng Zhang: Writing – review & editing, Software, Methodology, Formal analysis. John H. Rogers: Writing – review & editing, Resources. Gerald Eichstädt: Writing – review & editing, Formal analysis. Glenn S. Orton: Writing – review & editing. Davide Grassi: Formal analysis. Leigh N. Fletcher: Writing – review & editing. Cheng Li: Methodology, Formal analysis. Shinji Mizumoto: Resources, Formal analysis. Alessandro Mura: Investigation, Formal analysis. Fabiano Oyafuso: Methodology, Formal analysis. Ramanakumar Sankar: Writing – review & editing. Michael H. Wong: Writing – review & editing. Candice J. Hansen: Investigation. Steven Levin: Writing – review & editing. Scott Bolton: Investigation, Funding acquisition.

Data Availability

The Juno MWR observations used in this analysis work are available through the Planetary Data System Atmospheres Node. Data are stored in ASCII tables with supporting documentation at https://pds-atmospheres.nmsu.edu/data_and_services/atmospheres_data/JUNO/microwave.html. MWR data files can be found online at https://pds-atmospheres.nmsu.edu/PDS/data/jnomwr_1100/data_calibrated/. JunoCam and JIRAM data are available as .IMG and .LBL files at https://pds-imaging.jpl.nasa.gov/volumes/juno.html and https://atmos.nmsu.edu/PDS/data/PDS4/juno_jiram_bundle/data_calibrated/, respectively. Amateur and IRTF 5-micron images can be found at https://alpo-j.sakura.ne.jp/Latest/j_Cylindrical_Maps/j_Cylindrical_Maps.htm.

Supplemental Material

Supplementary data (PDF)

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