Ionospheric irregularities at Jupiter observed by JWST

Melin, H., O'Donoghue, J. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4218-1191, Moore, L., Stallard, T. S., Fletcher, L. N., Roman, M. T., Harkett, J., King, O. R. T., Thomas, E. M., Wang, R., Tiranti, P. I., Knowles, K. L., de Pater, I., Fouchet, T., Fry, P. H., Wong, M. H., Holler, B. J., Hueso, R., James, M. K., Orton, G. S., Mura, A., Sánchez-Lavega, A., Lellouch, E., de Kleer, K. and Showalter, M. R. (2024) Ionospheric irregularities at Jupiter observed by JWST. Nature Astronomy, 8 (8). pp. 1000-100. ISSN 2397-3366 doi: 10.1038/s41550-024-02305-9

Abstract/Summary

Jupiter’s upper atmosphere is composed of a neutral thermosphere and charged ionosphere. In the latter, the dominant molecular ion H3+ emits in the near-infrared, allowing for the remote exploration of the physical properties of the upper atmosphere. However, the Jovian low-latitude ionosphere remains largely unexplored because H3+ emissions from this region are faint and spectrally entangled with bright neutral species, such as CH4. Here, we present James Webb Space Telescope H3+ observations of Jupiter’s low-latitude ionosphere in the region of the Great Red Spot, showing unexpected small-scale intensity features such as arcs, bands and spots. Our observations may imply that the low-latitude ionosphere of Jupiter is strongly coupled to the lower atmosphere via gravity waves that superimpose to produce this complex and intricate morphology.

Item Type	Article
URI	https://reading-clone.eprints-hosting.org/id/eprint/120069
Identification Number/DOI	10.1038/s41550-024-02305-9
Refereed	Yes
Divisions	Science > School of Mathematical, Physical and Computational Sciences > Department of Meteorology
Publisher	Springer Nature
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