Jupiter’s microwave emission was observed throughout the SL9 impact period by many different telescopes, among which the NRAO 140-foot telescope in Green Bank (21 cm), Westerbork (92 cm), Effelsberg (6, 11 cm), Parkes (21 cm), NASA DSN (13 cm), and the Very Large Array (22, 90 cm). We determined the “average” total nonthermal flux density from the planet after having subtracted the thermal contribution, following the formulation by de Pater and Klein, (1989) and Klein et al., (1989). The flux density increased typically by 40-50% at 6 cm wavelength, 27% at 11-13 cm, 22%at 21 cm and 10-15% at 90 cm. Thus the radio spectrum hardened considerably during the week of cometary impacts. Following the week of cometary impacts, the flux density began to subside at all wavelength.

VLA images show the brightness distribution of the planet; a comparison of images taken before and during the week of impacts show marked changes in the brightness distribution. At a central meridian longitude λIII≈ 110°, the left side of the belts increased considerably and moved inwards by ~ 0.2 RJ. This suggests that the increase in flux density is caused by energization of the resident particle population.