APOD: Giant Storms and High Clouds on Jupiter (2021 Dec 29)

[APOD Robot]

Giant Storms and High Clouds on Jupiter

Explanation: What and where are these large ovals? They are rotating storm clouds on Jupiter imaged last month by NASA's Juno spacecraft. In general, higher clouds are lighter in color, and the lightest clouds visible are the relatively small clouds that dot the lower oval. At 50 kilometers across, however, even these light clouds are not small. They are so high up that they cast shadows on the swirling oval below. The featured image has been processed to enhance color and contrast. Large ovals are usually regions of high pressure that span over 1000 kilometers and can last for years. The largest oval on Jupiter is the Great Red Spot (not pictured), which has lasted for at least hundreds of years. Studying cloud dynamics on Jupiter with Juno images enables a better understanding of dangerous typhoons and hurricanes on Earth.

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[alter-ego]

Wow! The resolution and looks 3D. I've not seen a Jovian image like this before. I like the enhancements.

[RocketRon]

Have we figured out the composition of these 'clouds' yet ?

You'd think that with all that whirling and swirling, after hundreds of millions nay even billions of years
they would have combined into one homogeneous mass.
But obviously not....

[droyd]

Are there other images in sequence that could be used to make a stereo view of this area?

[Alex_515]

This planet is a pressure cooker.

[orin stepanek]

Wow! The white cloud looks sloppy wet and the red one looks dry
and dirty! JMO! really interesting that these clouds are so high
that they are casting a shadow!

[neufer]

Have we figured out the composition of these 'clouds' yet ?

Vertical structure of the atmosphere of Jupiter. Note that the temperature drops together with altitude above the tropopause. The Galileo atmospheric probe stopped transmitting at a depth of 132 km below the 1 bar "surface" of Jupiter.

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<<The lowest Jupiter atmospheric layer, the troposphere, has a complicated system of clouds and hazes, comprising layers of ammonia, ammonium hydrosulfide and water. The upper clouds, located in the pressure range 0.6–0.9 bar (10⁵ Pa), are made of ammonia ice. Below these ammonia ice clouds, denser clouds made of ammonium hydrosulfide ((NH₄)SH) or ammonium sulfide ((NH₄)₂S, between 1–2 bar) and water (3–7 bar) are thought to exist. There are no methane clouds as the temperatures are too high for it to condense. The water clouds form the densest layer of clouds and have the strongest influence on the dynamics of the atmosphere. This is a result of the higher condensation heat of water and higher water abundance as compared to the ammonia and hydrogen sulfide (oxygen is a more abundant chemical element than either nitrogen or sulfur). Various tropospheric (at 0.2–0.5 bar) and stratospheric (at 10–100 mbar (10² Pa)) haze layers reside above the main cloud layers. The stratospheric haze layers are made from condensed heavy polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons or hydrazine, which are generated in the upper stratosphere (1–100 μbar (10^-1 Pa)) from methane under the influence of the solar ultraviolet radiation (UV). The methane abundance relative to molecular hydrogen in the stratosphere is about 10⁻⁴, while the abundance ratio of other light hydrocarbons, like ethane and acetylene, to molecular hydrogen is about 10⁻⁶.

Storms are a result of moist convection in the atmosphere connected to the evaporation and condensation of water. They are sites of strong upward motion of the air, which leads to the formation of bright and dense clouds. The storms form mainly in belt regions. The lightning strikes on Jupiter are hundreds of times more powerful than those seen on Earth, and are assumed to be associated with the water clouds. Recent Juno observations suggest Jovian lightning strikes occur above the altitude of water clouds (3-7 bars). A charge separation between falling liquid ammonia-water droplets and water ice particles may generate the higher-altitude lightning. Upper-atmospheric lightning has also been observed 260 km above the 1 bar level.>>

[SpaceCadet]

From what distance is this photo taken?

[neufer]

From what distance is this photo taken?

https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA25031

<<Original Caption Released with Image:

This image shows two of Jupiter's large rotating storms, captured by Juno's visible-light imager, JunoCam, on Juno's 38th perijove pass, on Nov. 29, 2021. This image was acquired at 50 degrees 5 minutes north latitude, at an altitude of 6,140 kilometers. Atmospheric details as small as 4 kilometers can be discerned in the image. Bright "pop-up" clouds are visible above the lower storm, casting shadows on the cloud bank below. Although the pop-up clouds appear small in comparison to the large storm below, such clouds are typically 31 miles (50 kilometers) across.

Citizen scientist Kevin M. Gill processed the image to enhance the color and contrast, using raw JunoCam data.>>

[johnnydeep]

Have we figured out the composition of these 'clouds' yet ?

Vertical structure of the atmosphere of Jupiter. Note that the temperature drops together with altitude above the tropopause. The Galileo atmospheric probe stopped transmitting at a depth of 132 km below the 1 bar "surface" of Jupiter.

---

<<The lowest Jupiter atmospheric layer, the troposphere, has a complicated system of clouds and hazes, comprising layers of ammonia, ammonium hydrosulfide and water. The upper clouds, located in the pressure range 0.6–0.9 bar (10⁵ Pa), are made of ammonia ice. Below these ammonia ice clouds, denser clouds made of ammonium hydrosulfide ((NH₄)SH) or ammonium sulfide ((NH₄)₂S, between 1–2 bar) and water (3–7 bar) are thought to exist. There are no methane clouds as the temperatures are too high for it to condense. The water clouds form the densest layer of clouds and have the strongest influence on the dynamics of the atmosphere. This is a result of the higher condensation heat of water and higher water abundance as compared to the ammonia and hydrogen sulfide (oxygen is a more abundant chemical element than either nitrogen or sulfur). Various tropospheric (at 0.2–0.5 bar) and stratospheric (at 10–100 mbar (10² Pa)) haze layers reside above the main cloud layers. The stratospheric haze layers are made from condensed heavy polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons or hydrazine, which are generated in the upper stratosphere (1–100 μbar (10^-1 Pa)) from methane under the influence of the solar ultraviolet radiation (UV). The methane abundance relative to molecular hydrogen in the stratosphere is about 10⁻⁴, while the abundance ratio of other light hydrocarbons, like ethane and acetylene, to molecular hydrogen is about 10⁻⁶.

Storms are a result of moist convection in the atmosphere connected to the evaporation and condensation of water. They are sites of strong upward motion of the air, which leads to the formation of bright and dense clouds. The storms form mainly in belt regions. The lightning strikes on Jupiter are hundreds of times more powerful than those seen on Earth, and are assumed to be associated with the water clouds. Recent Juno observations suggest Jovian lightning strikes occur above the altitude of water clouds (3-7 bars). A charge separation between falling liquid ammonia-water droplets and water ice particles may generate the higher-altitude lightning. Upper-atmospheric lightning has also been observed 260 km above the 1 bar level.>>

Ah, water - is there nothing it can't do?

[johnnydeep]

Wow! The resolution and looks 3D. I've not seen a Jovian image like this before. I like the enhancements.

You beat me to it. Yes, the 3D effect is striking. I really like it!

PS - only 7 more posts to go until I hit 1000. Can I do it by year's end? Hopefully there'll be some difficult questions I have about the remaining two APODs.

[MarkBour]

What a beautiful image! I am trying to understand what I'm seeing and can learn about Jupiter from this image. Let me know if I got any of the following incorrect:

Those comparatively small white clouds above the larger oval are condensed water clouds, much like on Earth. And they're floating in a transparent upper atmosphere above the main cloud deck visible on Jupiter. The main visible cloud tops are the top of the troposphere, while the stratosphere, thermosphere, and exosphere are all mainly transparent. The upper transparent atmosphere of Jupiter, is mostly molecular Hydrogen and Helium.