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Science 26 April 1991:
Vol. 252. no. 5005, pp. 537 - 542
DOI: 10.1126/science.252.5005.537
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Articles

Thermal Maps of Jupiter: Spatial Organization and Time Dependence of Stratospheric Temperatures, 1980 to 1990

GLENN S. ORTON 1, A. JAMES FRIEDSON 1, KEVIN H. BAINES 1, TERRY Z. MARTIN 1, ROBERT A. WEST 1, JOHN CALDWELL 2, HEIDI B. HAMMEL 3, JAY T. BERGSTRALH 4, MICHAEL E. MALCOM 5, WILLIAM F. GOLISCH 6, DAVID M. GRIEP 6, CHARLES D. KAMINSKI 6, ALAN T. TOKUNAGA 6, RICHARD BARON 6, and MARK SHURE 6

1 Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, 4800 Oak Grove Drive, Pasadena, CA 91109
2 Physics Department, York University, 4700 Keele Street, North York, Ontario, M3J IP3, Canada
3 Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139
4 National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Washington, DC 20546
5 TRW, 1 Space Park, Redondo Beach, CA 90278
6 Institute for Astronomy, University of Hawaii, 2680 Woodlawn Drive, Honolulu, HI 96822

The spatial organization and time dependence of Jupiter's stratospheric temperatures have been measured by observing thermal emission from the 7.8-micrometer CH4 band. These temperatures, observed through the greater part of a Jovian year, exhibit the influence of seasonal radiative forcing. Distinct bands of high temperature are located at the poles and mid-latitudes, while the equator alternates between warm and cold with a period of approximately 4 years. Substantial longitudinal variability is often observed within the warm mid-latitude bands, and occasionally elsewhere on the planet. This variability includes small, localized structures, as well as large-scale waves with wavelengths longer than sim30,000 kilometers. The amplitudes of the waves vary on a time scale of sim1 month; structures on a smaller scale may have lifetimes of only days. Waves observed in 1985, 1987, and 1988 propagated with group velocities less than ±30 meters per second.

Submitted on December 20, 1990
Accepted on March 15, 1991


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