Red Spots (APOD 23 May 2008)

[neufer]

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap080523.html

Red Spots at night
Rayleigh-Taylor's delight

http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsro ... mg_id=9772

[Galactic Groove]

"The spots .... red color may be due to deeper material dredged up by the storms and exposed to ultraviolet light, but the exact chemical process is still unknown."

My question is why do they think it has to do with ultraviolet light.... or any chemical process at all? Can't it simply be the color of the light reflecting from the clouds themselves... just like how our sky is blue and the grass is green?

[Animation]

I like the comment about the newest spot hitting the biggest one in August. If it does, I look forward to the image sequences that come out of that.

Lewis

[neufer]

I like the comment about the newest spot hitting the biggest one in August. If it does, I look forward to the image sequences that come out of that.

<<When the cyclones approach each other, their centers will begin orbiting cyclonically about a point between the two systems. The two vortices will be attracted to each other, and eventually spiral into the center point and merge. When the two vortices are of unequal size, the larger vortex will tend to dominate the interaction, and the smaller vortex will orbit around it.>>
.
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fujiwhara_effect

[Rickvid in Seattle]

Drat those Jovian SUVs!

[Galactic Groove]

i really hope we get to see time lapse photos!!! much like the break up and impact of comet Shoemaker-Levy 9

[Arramon]

Why can't we see beneath the cloud structures? Instruments can for other planets like Saturn's moon Titan, with its hazey atmosphere.

Are these clouds on Jupiter just too thick too scan through?

[iamlucky13]

I wonder how the Fujiwhara effect will apply here, since Jupiter's storms don't seem to change latitude due to the strong banding of the atmosphere.

Arramon, when we look through Titan's atmosphere, it is primarily with radar. There's certain infrared "windows," too, but the view at those wavelengths is very hazy. Also, the clouds on Titan are methane. The clouds on Jupiter are mostly frozen ammonia crystals.

I believe Galileo had a radar for studying Jupiter's moons, but there was nothing to discern within its range in Jupiter's atmosphere.

Don't forget, Jupiter has no solid core.

There's a little more info, plus references, and a really fascinating time-lapse of Jupiter in the wikipedia article. The cloud bands counter-rotate!:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jupiter#Gr ... her_storms

^ I'm serious. Click the link and watch the time-lapse. It's amazing to see the interaction between the clouds bands and the great red spot.

[LOOKinHEREcom]

I would like to see a 3D Anaglyph of the Red Spots, do they have an eye like our Hurricanes? Is the pressure so great that it is just a liquid soup of gasses mixing and reacting 8) ? w/Anaglyph 3D Glasses

[Arramon]

Damn You Jupiter for being so thickheaded... =b



hmmm... so why does the giant red spot in this time-lapse seem like its stationary? You can really see how the whirls and eddies of the smaller systems appear from the different directions of the bands that are adjacent.

and if Jupiter rotates, is the satellite taking these images in a synchronous orbit, making it seem like Jupiter isn't rotating at all?

hehehe... I like how you can see the moons fly by. =)

[Case]

and if Jupiter rotates, is the satellite taking these images in a synchronous orbit, making it seem like Jupiter isn't rotating at all?

"Description: Jupiter seen by Voyager 1 probe with blue filter. One image was taken every Jupiter day (approximately 10 hours). These pictures were taken from 01/06 to 02/03, 1979 ; and Voyager 1 flew from 58 million to 31 million kilometers from Jupiter during that time."

A planet rotates around it axis in one day, so taking a picture once a day while approaching, sees the planet from the same side every time.

[Arramon]

Ergo, the seemingly fast moving moons only viewable for the 1-day photo op.

The storm systems look like they are really slow when compared to the rotation of Jupiter. Although the scale is ridiculous compared to Earth's storms. Jupiter's storms appear to be slow, but would probably rip the face of the crust off earth if winds that fast were here.

[NoelC]

That animation is amazing, Arramon. I think I learned more about how the bands of Jupiter are moving and interact with one another and the GRS in that one short moment than in an entire prior lifetime of reading descriptions of how the Jovian planet works. Thank you!

-Noel

[BMAONE23]

Gotta agree with Noel If a picture paints 1000 words then that Movie speaks millions about the Jovian atmosphere.

[astrolabe]

Hello All,

The wide band moving left to right at the Equator appears to react with a whitish "bloom" as the thinner swirling band above it "drops" a parcel of it's atmosphere into it. Seems more a subject for a chemist than a physicist.

On Earth, air masses of different densities (a product of temperature) do not mix well at all and weather happens. I'd be curious to know if the bands of Jupiter are barometric in nature or, if adiabatic, their chemical densities are the reason that a gas planet, after all these years, doesn't appear more homogenous.

It is also interesting how the Red Spot spinning cyclonically stacks up the cloud band to it's left which then is forced to go up and over to continue while at the same time success is met by currents filling in behind the Spot from the right. The band distinctions are very fortunate for us as well as violently dramatic. The views from the moons must be wilting!

[Arramon]

Above animation:

Approaching Jupiter
Date: 02.03.1979
This is the original Voyager 'Blue Movie' (so named because it was built from Blue filter images). It records Voyager 1's approach during a period of over 60 Jupiter days. Notice the difference in speed and direction of the various zones of the atmosphere. The interaction of the atmospheric clouds and storms shows how dynamic the Jovian atmosphere is.

As Voyager 1 approached Jupiter in 1979, it took images of the planet at regular intervals. This sequence is made from 66 images taken once every Jupiter rotation period (about 10 hours). This time-lapse movie uses images taken every time Jupiter longitude 68W passed under the spacecraft. These images were acquired in the Blue filter from Jan. 6 to Feb. 3 1979. The spacecraft flew from 58 million kilometers to 31 million kilometers from Jupiter during that time.

This time-lapse movie was produced at JPL by the Image Processing Laboratory in 1979.

Jupiter Gallery at NASA:
http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/pro ... ay=Gallery