The Great Cold Spot in Jupiter's upper atmosphere

Stallard, T. S., Melin, H., Miller, S., Moore, L., O'Donoghue, J. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4218-1191, Connerney, J. E. P., Satoh, T., West, R. A., Thayer, J. P., Hsu, V. W. and Johnson, R. E. (2017) The Great Cold Spot in Jupiter's upper atmosphere. Geophysical Research Letters, 44 (7). pp. 3000-3008. ISSN 1944-8007 doi: 10.1002/2016GL071956

Abstract/Summary

Past observations and modeling of Jupiter’s thermosphere have, due to their limited resolution,suggested that heat generated by the aurora near the poles results in a smooth thermal gradient away fromthese aurorae, indicating a quiescent and diffuse flow of energy within the subauroral thermosphere. Herewe discuss Very Large Telescope-Cryogenic High-Resolution IR Echelle Spectrometer observations that reveala small-scale localized cooling of ~200 K within the nonauroral thermosphere. Using Infrared TelescopeFacility NSFCam images, this feature is revealed to be quasi-stable over at least a 15 year period, fixed inmagnetic latitude and longitude. The size and shape of this “Great Cold Spot” vary significantly with time,strongly suggesting that it is produced by an aurorally generated weather system: the first direct evidence ofa long-term thermospheric vortex in the solar system. We discuss the implications of this spot, comparing itwith short-term temperature and density variations at Earth.

Item Type	Article
URI	https://centaur.reading.ac.uk/id/eprint/120092
Identification Number/DOI	10.1002/2016GL071956
Refereed	Yes
Divisions	Science > School of Mathematical, Physical and Computational Sciences > Department of Meteorology
Publisher	American Geophysical Union
Download/View statistics	View download statistics for this item