Tempests in the Troposphere: Mapping the Impact of Giant Storms on Jupiter's Deep Atmosphere

Fuente: arXiv
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Autori principali: Moeckel, Chris, Ge, Huazhi, de Pater, Imke
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2025
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author Moeckel, Chris
Ge, Huazhi
de Pater, Imke
author_facet Moeckel, Chris
Ge, Huazhi
de Pater, Imke
contents Storms are emerging as key drivers in shaping hydrogen-dominated atmospheres. Trace gas condensation can suppress convection and disrupt the distribution of energy and material in hydrogen atmospheres. On Jupiter, the presence of water has been invoked to control the occurrence of large-scale storms; however, the impact of storms on the ammonia and temperature distribution is unknown. We use Juno Microwave Radiometer observations of a large-scale storm in 2017 to study the aftermath of such a storm on the atmosphere. Anomalies in the retrieved ammonia abundance and atmospheric temperature show how storms deplete and heat the upper atmosphere while simultaneously depositing material well below the layers they were triggered at. These observations, aided by simulations, show that the water and ammonia cycles are coupled and that their combined effect plays a key role in explaining the depletion of ammonia in the tropospheres of Jupiter and Saturn.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2502_16422
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Tempests in the Troposphere: Mapping the Impact of Giant Storms on Jupiter's Deep Atmosphere
Moeckel, Chris
Ge, Huazhi
de Pater, Imke
Earth and Planetary Astrophysics
Storms are emerging as key drivers in shaping hydrogen-dominated atmospheres. Trace gas condensation can suppress convection and disrupt the distribution of energy and material in hydrogen atmospheres. On Jupiter, the presence of water has been invoked to control the occurrence of large-scale storms; however, the impact of storms on the ammonia and temperature distribution is unknown. We use Juno Microwave Radiometer observations of a large-scale storm in 2017 to study the aftermath of such a storm on the atmosphere. Anomalies in the retrieved ammonia abundance and atmospheric temperature show how storms deplete and heat the upper atmosphere while simultaneously depositing material well below the layers they were triggered at. These observations, aided by simulations, show that the water and ammonia cycles are coupled and that their combined effect plays a key role in explaining the depletion of ammonia in the tropospheres of Jupiter and Saturn.
title Tempests in the Troposphere: Mapping the Impact of Giant Storms on Jupiter's Deep Atmosphere
topic Earth and Planetary Astrophysics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2502.16422