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A Survey of Small-Scale Waves and Wave-Like Phenomena in Jupiter's Atmosphere Detected by JunoCam
  • +17
  • Glenn S Orton,
  • Fachreddin Tabataba-Vakili,
  • Gerald Eichstaedt,
  • John Rogers,
  • Candice J. Hansen,
  • Thomas W. Momary,
  • Andrew Ingersoll,
  • Shawn Brueshaber,
  • Michael H. Wong,
  • Amy Simon,
  • Leigh N Fletcher,
  • Michael A. Ravine,
  • Michael Caplinger,
  • Dakota Smith,
  • Scott J Bolton,
  • Steven M. Levin,
  • James Andrew Sinclair,
  • Chloe Thepenier,
  • Hamish Nicholson,
  • Agigail Anthon y
Glenn S Orton
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology

Corresponding Author:[email protected]

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Fachreddin Tabataba-Vakili
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
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Gerald Eichstaedt
Independent scholar
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John Rogers
British Astronomical Association
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Candice J. Hansen
Planetary Science Institute
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Thomas W. Momary
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
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Andrew Ingersoll
Caltech
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Shawn Brueshaber
Western Michigan University
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Michael H. Wong
University of California, Berkeley
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Amy Simon
NASA GSFC
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Leigh N Fletcher
University of Leicester
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Michael A. Ravine
Malin Space Science Systems, Inc.
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Michael Caplinger
Malin Space Science Systems
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Dakota Smith
National Center for Atmospheric Research
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Scott J Bolton
Southwest Research Institute
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Steven M. Levin
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
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James Andrew Sinclair
Jet Propulsion Laboratory/California Institute of Technology
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Chloe Thepenier
Glendale Community College
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Hamish Nicholson
Harvard College
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Agigail Anthon y
Golden West College
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Abstract

In the first 20 orbits of the Juno spacecraft around Jupiter, we have identified a variety of wave-like features in images made by its public-outreach camera, JunoCam. Because of Juno’s unprecedented and repeated proximity to Jupiter’s cloud tops during its close approaches, JunoCam has detected more wave structures than any previous surveys. Most of the waves appear in long wave packets, oriented east-west and populated by narrow wave crests. Spacing between crests were measured as small as ~30 km, shorter than any previously measured. Some waves are associated with atmospheric features, but others are not ostensibly associated with any visible cloud phenomena and thus may be generated by dynamical forcing below the visible cloud tops. Some waves also appear to be converging and others appear to be overlapping, possibly at different atmospheric levels. Another type of wave has a series of fronts that appear to be radiating outward from the center of a cyclone. Most of these waves appear within 5° of latitude from the equator, but we have detected waves covering planetocentric latitudes between 20°S and 45°N. The great majority of the waves appear in regions associated with prograde motions of the mean zonal flow. Juno was unable to measure the velocity of wave features to diagnose the wave types due to its close and rapid flybys. However, both by our own upper limits on wave motions and by analogy with previous measurements, we expect that the waves JunoCam detected near the equator are inertia-gravity waves.
Jul 2020Published in Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets volume 125 issue 7. 10.1029/2019JE006369