The distribution of ammonia on Jupiter from a preliminary inversion of Juno microwave radiometer data

Citations Over TimeTop 10% of 2017 papers

Abstract

Abstract The Juno microwave radiometer measured the thermal emission from Jupiter's atmosphere from the cloud tops at about 1 bar to as deep as a hundred bars of pressure during its first flyby over Jupiter (PJ1). The nadir brightness temperatures show that the Equatorial Zone is likely to be an ideal adiabat, which allows a determination of the deep ammonia abundance in the range ppm. The combination of Markov chain Monte Carlo method and Tikhonov regularization is studied to invert Jupiter's global ammonia distribution assuming a prescribed temperature profile. The result shows (1) that ammonia is depleted globally down to 50–60 bars except within a few degrees of the equator, (2) the North Equatorial Belt is more depleted in ammonia than elsewhere, and (3) the ammonia concentration shows a slight inversion starting from about 7 bars to 2 bars. These results are robust regardless of the choice of water abundance.

Related Papers

• → The H2 4−0 S(0, 1,and 2) quadrupole features in Jupiter(1989)18 cited
• → Hydrogen at high pressures and temperatures: Implications for Jupiter(1998)4 cited
• Is the Stormy Weather of Jupiter is Comparable to Earth(2013)
• → About the time of radiation relaxation of the hydrogen-helium atmosphere, determined on the change in the activity factor of Jupiter’s hemispheres(2020)1 cited
• → The impact of fragment “L” of comet SL-9 on Jupiter(1994)7 cited