HR: 13:55h
AN: P53C-02 INVITED    [Abstracts]
TI: New Horizons at Jupiter: From Polar Lightning to Equatorial Waves
AU: * Simon-Miller, A A
EM: Amy.Simon@nasa.gov
AF: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, 8800 Greenbelt Road, Greenbelt, MD 20771, United States
AU: Baines, K H
EM: kbaines@aloha.jpl.nasa.gov
AF: Jet Propulsion Lab, 4800 Oak Grove Drive, Pasadena, CA 91109, United States
AU: Reuter, D C
EM: Dennis.C.Reuter@nasa.gov
AF: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, 8800 Greenbelt Road, Greenbelt, MD 20771, United States
AU: Jennings, D E
EM: Donald.E.Jennings.1@gsfc.nasa.gov
AF: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, 8800 Greenbelt Road, Greenbelt, MD 20771, United States
AU: Lunsford, A W
EM: Allen.W.Lunsford@nasa.gov
AF: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, 8800 Greenbelt Road, Greenbelt, MD 20771, United States
AU: Weaver, H A
EM: hal.weaver@jhuapl.edu
AF: The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab, 11100 Johns Hopkins Road, Laurel, MD 20723, United States
AU: Momary, T W
EM: Thomas.W.Momary@jpl.nasa.gov
AF: Jet Propulsion Lab, 4800 Oak Grove Drive, Pasadena, CA 91109, United States
AU: Cheng, A F
EM: andy.cheng@jhuapl.edu
AF: The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab, 11100 Johns Hopkins Road, Laurel, MD 20723, United States
AU: Spencer, J R
EM: spencer@boulder.swri.edu
AF: Southwest Research Institute, 1050 Walnut St, Suite 300, Boulder, CO 80302, United States
AU: Gladstone, G R
EM: randy.gladstone@swri.org
AF: Southwest Research Institute, 1050 Walnut St, Suite 300, Boulder, CO 80302, United States
AU: Moore, J M
EM: Jeff.Moore@nasa.gov
AF: NASA Ames Research Center, n/a, Moffett Field, CA 94035, United States
AU: Stern, S A
EM: alan.stern-1@nasa.gov
AF: NASA Headquarters, 300 E ST SW, Washington, DC 20546, United States
AU: New Horizons Team, T
EM: n/a
AB: Enroute to Pluto, the New Horizons encounter with Jupiter in January-March 2007 produced stunning new views and revelations about jovian dynamic meteorology. The sharpest multi-spectral global views ever obtained in the near-infrared revealed spectroscopically-identified ammonia clouds (SIACs) near 30 degrees south latitude, the first such detection of discrete ammonia clouds southward of the Great Red Spot. Movies of these clouds obtained over four jovian days revealed their rapid development and dissipation, consistent with a lifetime for SIACs of a few days. Winds within the Little Red Spot (LRS) measured by the LORRI telescopic imager were found to be comparable to those of the Great Red Spot. High spatial-resolution multi-spectral visual imagery by the MVIC camera revealed detailed 3-D views of the LRS and turbulence in the southern hemisphere. The turbulent wake region northwest of the Great Red Spot was found to be quiescent, absent the dynamic cloud systems observed over the previous 28 years by the Voyager, Galileo, and Cassini spacecraft. Compared to previous spacecraft views, a significant thinning of clouds is reported for the southern half of the Equatorial Region. Mesoscale wave structures are observed at low latitudes at a spatial resolution of about 11 km with LORRI, yielding a longitudinal wavelength of 300 km and a 100 m/s phase velocity relative to the zonal flow, much higher than had been predicted. Lightning was discovered at both poles, the first such optical detection of polar lightning for any planet beyond the Earth. The mean polar lightning radiative flux is found to be comparable to that previously reported for the mid-latitudes and significantly greater than reported for the equatorial region, consistent with internal heating being the main driver of convection on Jupiter.
DE: 3324 Lightning
DE: 3384 Acoustic-gravity waves
DE: 5704 Atmospheres (0343, 1060)
DE: 6220 Jupiter
SC: Planetary Sciences [P]
MN: 2007 Fall Meeting