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A system of circumpolar waves in Jupiter's stratosphere
Author(s) -
SanchezLavega Agustín,
Hueso Ricardo,
Ramón Acarreta Juan
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/1998gl900059
Subject(s) - jovian , jupiter (rocket family) , stratosphere , latitude , circumpolar star , wavenumber , atmosphere of jupiter , geology , atmosphere (unit) , atmospheric sciences , physics , astronomy , planet , geophysics , meteorology , space exploration , optics , saturn
We report on the optical identification on Hubble Space Telescope (HST) and Voyager 1 archived images, of a circumpolar system of Jovian stratospheric quasi‐stationary waves, centered at planetographic latitudes −53°, −62°, and −67° with averaged zonal wavenumbers 23, 11, and 12 respectively. The most conspicuous wave is detected in the 890‐nm strong absorption band of methane at −67° latitude. Its amplitude changes in a matter of days, stretching and contracting but preserving the number of components in the latitude circle. This wave has been observed during several years and seems to be a persistent, long‐term phenomena in Jupiter's atmosphere.