Open AccessResidual Study: Testing Jupiter Atmosphere Models Against Juno MWR Observations
Author(s) -
Zhang Zhimeng,
Adumitroaie Virgil,
Allison Michael,
Arballo John,
Atreya Sushil,
Bjoraker Gordon,
Bolton Scott,
Brown Shan,
Fletcher Leigh N.,
Guillot Tristan,
Gulkis Samuel,
Hodges Amoree,
Ingersoll Andrew,
Janssen Michael,
Levin Steven,
Li Cheng,
Li Liming,
Lunine Jonathan,
Misra Sidharth,
Orton Glenn,
Oyafuso Fabiano,
Steffes Paul,
Wong Michael H.
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
earth and space science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.843
H-Index - 23
ISSN - 2333-5084
DOI - 10.1029/2020ea001229
Subject(s) - jupiter (rocket family) , atmosphere (unit) , atmosphere of jupiter , physics , microwave radiometer , spacecraft , astronomy , geology , jovian , meteorology , satellite , planet , saturn
The Juno spacecraft provides unique close‐up views of Jupiter underneath the synchrotron radiation belts while circling Jupiter in its 53‐day orbits. The Microwave Radiometer (MWR) on board measures Jupiter thermal radiation at wavelengths between 1.37 cm and 50 cm, penetrating the atmosphere to a pressure of a few hundred bars and greater. The mission provides the first measurements of Jupiter's deep atmosphere, down to ~250 bars in pressure, constraining the vertical distributions of its kinetic temperature and constituents. As a result, vertical structure models of Jupiter's atmosphere may now be tested by comparison with MWR data. Taking into account the MWR beam patterns and observation geometries, we test several published Jupiter atmospheric models against MWR data. Our residual analysis confirms Li et al. 2017's result that ammonia depletion persists down to 50~60 bars where ground‐based VLA was not able to observe. We also present an extension of the study that iteratively improves the input model and generates Jupiter brightness temperature maps which best match the MWR data. A feature of Juno's north‐to‐south scanning approach is that latitudinal structure is more easily obtained than longitudinal, and the creation of optimum two‐dimensional maps is addressed in this approach.