Thermal maps of jupiter: spatial organization and time dependence of stratospheric temperatures, 1980 to 1990

Science. 1991 Apr 26;252(5005):537-42. doi: 10.1126/science.252.5005.537.

Abstract

The spatial organization and time dependence of Jupiter's stratospheric temperatures have been measured by observing thermal emission from the 7.8-micrometer CH(4) band. These temperatures, observed through the greater part of a Jovian year, exhibit the influence of seasonal radiative forcing. Distinct bands of high temperature are located at the poles and mid-latitudes, while the equator alternates between warm and cold with a period of approximately 4 years. Substantial longitudinal variability is often observed within the warm mid-latitude bands, and occasionally elsewhere on the planet. This variability includes small, localized structures, as well as large-scale waves with wavelengths longer than approximately 30,000 kilometers. The amplitudes of the waves vary on a time scale of approximately 1 month; structures on a smaller scale may have lifetimes of only days. Waves observed in 1985, 1987, and 1988 propagated with group velocities less than +/-30 meters per second.