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At least 865 records · Page 48

Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter interplanetary injection period analysis

This paper investigates the sensitivity of the planned Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter mission to variations in interplanetary injection date, magnitude, and direction, starting in a low-Earth assembly orbit. These results are used to determine the frequency and number of injection opportunities from a processing assembly obit. It is shown that the use of a low-thrust propulsion system with a nuclear-electric power source would allow the interplanetary trajectory performance to be relatively insensitive to variations in injection conditions. This result yields many injection opportunities due to the long injection period and consecutive orbits with favorable geometry.

trajectory↗

A Revised Model of Jupiter's Inner Electron Belts: Updating the Divine Radiation Model

In 1983, Divine presented a comprehensive model of the Jovian charged particle environment that has long served as a reference for missions to Jupiter. However, in situ observations by Galileo and synchrotron observations from Earth indicate the need to update the model in the inner radiation zone. Specifically, a review of the model for 1 MeV < E < 100 MeV trapped electrons suggests that, based on the new synchrotron observations, the pitch angle distributions within L < 4 need to be updated by introducing two additional components: one near the Jovian magnetic equator and one at high magnetic latitudes. We report modifications to the model that reproduce these observations. The new model improves the fit to synchrotron emission observations and remains consistent with the original fit to the in situ Pioneer and Voyager data. Further modifications incorporating observations from the Galileo and Cassini spacecraft will be reported in the future.

missions↗

Exponential Sum Absorption Coefficients of Phosphine from 2750 to 3550/cm for Application to Radiative Transfer Analyses on Jupiter and Saturn

PH3 exponential sum k coefficients were computed between 2750 and 3550/cm (2.82-3.64 (microns), in view of future application to radiative transfer analyses of Jupiter and Saturn in a phosphine absorption band near 3 microns. The temperature and pressure of this data set cover the ranges from 80 to 350 K and from 10 (exp -3)to 10(exp 1) bars, respectively. Transmission uncertainty incurred by the use of the k coefficients is smaller than a few percent as long as the radiation is confined above an altitude of a few bars in the giant planets. In spectral regions of weak absorption at high pressures close to 10 bars, contributions from far wings of strong absorption lines must be carefully taken into account. Our data set helps map the three-dimensional distribution of PH3 on the giant planets, revealing their global atmospheric dynamics extending down to the deep interior. The complete k coefficient data set of this work is available at the Web site of the NASA Planetary Data System Atmospheres Node.

phosphine↗

Jupiter System Observer

This slide presentation reviews the proposed mission for the Jupiter System Observer. The presentation also includes overviews of the mission timeline, science goals, and spacecraftspecifications for the satellite.

Io↗

Enhancement of the Accretion of Jupiters Core by a Voluminous Low-Mass Envelope

We present calculations of the early stages of the formation of Jupiter via core nucleated accretion and gas capture. The core begins as a seed body of about 350 kilometers in radius and orbits in a swarm of planetesimals whose initial radii range from 15 meters to 100 kilometers. We follow the evolution of the swarm by accounting for growth and fragmentation, viscous and gravitational stirring, and for drag-induced migration and velocity damping. Gas capture by the core substantially enhances the cross-section of the planet for accretion of small planetesimals. The dust opacity within the atmosphere surrounding the planetary core is computed self-consistently, accounting for coagulation and sedimentation of dust particles released in the envelope as passing planetesimals are ablated. The calculation is carried out at an orbital semi-major axis of 5.2 AU and an initial solids' surface density of 10/g/cm^2 at that distance. The results give a core mass of 7 Earth masses and an envelope mass of approximately 0.1 Earth mass after 500,000 years, at which point the envelope growth rate surpasses that of the core. The same calculation without the envelope gives a core mass of only 4 Earth masses.

Jupiter↗

Dramatic Change in Jupiter's Great Red Spot

Jupiter's Great Red Spot (GRS) is one of its most distinct and enduring features, having been continuously observed since the 1800's. It currently spans the smallest latitude and longitude size ever recorded. Here we show analyses of 2014 Hubble spectral imaging data to study the color, structure and internal dynamics of this long-live storm.

Red Spot↗

The 2010-2011 Revival of Jupiter's South Equatorial Belt: Perturbations of Temperatures, Clouds and Composition from Infrared Observations

On 2010 November 9, a perturbation appeared in Jupiter's South Equatorial Belt (SEB), which began a classical "revival" of the SEB, returning the entire axisymmetric region to its normal dark color from its anomalous, light, "faded" state. The early revival is marked by strong upwelling gas at the outbreak location, to the west of which appear alternating clear and cloudy regions. Clear regions are correlated with dark clouds near the outbreak and in a southern retrograding branch but less so in a northern prograding branch. A 5-micrometer image from 2010 March 1 shows much of the SEB closer to a pre-faded state.

atmosphere↗

Chromophores from photolyzed ammonia reacting with acetylene: Application to Jupiters Great Red Spot

The high altitude of Jupiter's Great Red Spot (GRS) may enhance the upward flux of gaseous ammonia (NH3 ) into the high troposphere, where NH3 molecules can be photodissociated and initiate a chain of chemical reactions with downwelling acetylene molecules (C2H2 ). These reactions, experimentally studied earlier by (Ferris and Ishikawa [1987] Nature 326, 777-778) and (Ferris and Ishikawa [1988] J. Amer. Chem. Soc. 110, 4306-4312), produce chromophores that absorb in the visible and ultraviolet regions. In this work we photolyzed mixtures of NH3 and C2H2 using ultraviolet radiation with a wavelength of 214 nm and measured the spectral transmission of the deposited films in the visible region (400-740 nm). From these transmission data we estimated the imaginary indices of refraction. Assuming that ammonia grains at the top of the GRS clouds are coated with this material, we performed layered sphere and radiative transfer calculations to predict GRS reflection spectra. Comparison of those results with observed and previously unreported Cassini visible spectra and with true-color images of the GRS show that the unknown GRS chromophore is spectrally consistent with the coupled NH3-C2H2 photochemical products produced in our laboratory experiments. Using high-resolution mass spectrometry and infrared spectroscopy we infer that the chromophore-containing residue is composed of aliphatic azine, azo, and diazo compounds.

Jupiter↗

Jupiters North Equatorial Belt Expansion and Thermal Wave Activity Ahead of Junos Arrival.

The dark colors of Jupiter's North Equatorial Belt (NEB, 7-17degN) appeared to expand northward into the neighboring one in 2015, consistent with a 35 year cycle. Inversions of thermal-IR imaging from the Very Large Telescope revealed a moderate warming and reduction of aerosol opacity at the cloud tops at 17-20degN, suggesting subsidence and drying in the expanded sector. Two new thermal waves were identified during this period: (i) an upper tropospheric thermal wave (wave number 16-17, amplitude 2.5 K at 170 mbar) in the mid-NEB that was anticorrelated with haze reflectivity; and (ii) a stratospheric wave (wave number 13-14, amplitude 7.3 K at 5 mbar) at 20-30degN. Both were quasi-stationary, confined to regions of eastward zonal flow, and are morphologically similar to waves observed during previous expansion events.

Jupiter↗

Treatment of Overlapping Gaseous Absorption with the Correlated-k Method in Hot Jupiter and Brown Dwarf Atmosphere Models

The correlated-k method is frequently used to speed up radiation calculations in both one-dimensional and three-dimensional atmosphere models. An inherent difficulty with this method is how to treat overlapping absorption, i.e. absorption by more than one gas in a given spectral region. We have evaluated the applicability of three different methods in hot Jupiter and brown dwarf atmosphere models, all of which have been previously applied within models in the literature: (i) Random overlap, both with and without resorting and rebinning, (ii) equivalent extinction and (iii) pre-mixing of opacities, where (i) and (ii) combine k-coefficients for different gases to obtain k-coefficients for a mixture of gases, while (iii) calculates k-coefficients for a given mixture from the corresponding mixed line-by-line opacities. We find that the random overlap method is the most accurate and flexible of these treatments, and is fast enough to be used in one-dimensional models with resorting and rebinning. In three-dimensional models such as GCMs it is too slow, however, and equivalent extinction can provide a speed-up of at least a factor of three with only a minor loss of accuracy while at the same time retaining the flexibility gained by combining k-coefficients computed for each gas individually. Pre-mixed opacities are significantly less flexible, and we also find that particular care must be taken when using this method in order to to adequately resolve steep variations in composition at important chemical equilibrium boundaries. We use the random overlap method with resorting and rebinning in our one-dimensional atmosphere model and equivalent extinction in our GCM, which allows us to e.g. consistently treat the feedback of non-equilibrium chemistry on the total opacity and therefore the calculated P-T profiles in our models.

atmospheres↗

Precipitating Electron Energy Flux and Characteristic Energies in Jupiter's Main Auroral Region as Measured by Juno/JEDI

The relationship between electron energy flux and the characteristic energy of electron distributions in the main auroral loss cone bridges the gap between predictions made by theory and measurements just recently available from Juno. For decades such relationships have been inferred from remote sensing observations of the Jovian aurora, primarily from the Hubble Space Telescope, and also more recently from Hisaki. However, to infer these quantities, remote sensing techniques had to assume properties of the Jovian atmospheric structure - leading to uncertainties in their profile. Juno's arrival and subsequent auroral passes have allowed us to obtain these relationships unambiguously for the first time, when the spacecraft passes through the auroral acceleration region. Using Juno /Jupiter Energetic particle Detector Instrument (JEDI), an energetic particle instrument, we present these relationships for the 30-kiloelectronvolts to 1-megaelectronvolts electron population. Observations presented here show that the electron energy flux in the loss cone is a nonlinear function of the characteristic or mean electron energy and supports both the predictions from Knight (1973, https://doi.org/10.1016/0032-0633(73)90093-7) and magnetohydrodynamic turbulence acceleration theories (e.g., Saur et al., 2003, https://doi.org/10.1029/2002GL015761). Finally, we compare the in situ analyses of Juno with remote Hisaki observations and use them to help constrain Jupiter's atmospheric profile. We find a possible solution that provides the best agreement between these data sets is an atmospheric profile that more efficiently transports the hydrocarbons to higher altitudes. If this is correct, it supports the previously published idea (e.g., Parkinson et al., 2006, https://doi.org/10.1029/2005JE002539) that precipitating electrons increase the hydrocarbon eddy diffusion coefficients in the auroral regions.

Auroral↗

The radiation effects on Galileo spacecraft systems at Jupiter

The Galileo spacecraft has been subjected to the charged particle environment around Jupiter since 1995. There have been numerous system failures attributable to radiation effects. We summarize those failures, their causes and any associated fixes.

Galileo↗