NASA’s Juno Mission launched in August 2011, and entered into orbit around Jupiter in 2016. NASA reported that, since then, Juno has completed 37 close passes of Jupiter, named perijoves. During each of these 37 perijoves, a suite of instruments aboard Juno has performed observations of the planet’s inner atmosphere below the swirling clouds that make up the gas giant’s upper atmosphere.
A series of papers, which have been published in Geophysical Research: Planets and Geophysical Research Letters, dive into detail about the new data delivered by Juno. Among papers are studies on:
• Using the Microwave Radiometer (MWR) instrument, researchers can peer through Jupiter’s cloud deck, and study how cyclones and anticyclones form and evolve; the most iconic of these being the Great Red Spot, which is larger than Earth and has been raging for at least 340 years.
• The eight cyclones at the north pole form a moving but stable octagon pattern, and the five cyclones at the south pole form a pentagon.
• Like Earth, Jupiter also has jet streams, but they are also quite different.
“MWR data hints that ammonia gas in Jupiter’s atmosphere moves up and down in remarkable similarity with the observed jet streams….
” ‘By following the ammonia, we found circulation cells in both the north and south hemispheres that are similar in nature to “Ferrel cells,” which control much of our climate here on Earth,’ said Keren Duer of the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel and lead author of the study.
“These Ferrel cells, like most things on Jupiter, are massive.
“‘While Earth has one Ferrel cell per hemisphere, Jupiter has eight – each at least 30 times larger,’ said Duer.” (https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2021/11/juno-science-atmosphere/ )
