Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t7fkt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-29T10:34:55.077Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Growth and dispersion of the Shoemaker-Levy 9 impact features from HST imaging

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 August 2016

Reta F. Beebe*
Affiliation:
Department of Astronomy, New Mexico State University, P.O. Box 30001/Dept. 4500, Las Cruces, NM 88003, USA

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

The Hubble Space Telescope Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 imaging data provide the highest spatial resolution of individual Shoemaker-Levy 9 impact sites. Analysis of images obtained with the F410M filter yielded horizontal translation rates of tropospheric cloud structures and the east-west components have been interpreted as zonal winds which vary with latitude. When the tropospheric zonal winds between —60° and —30°, which were derived from the SL9 images, are compared with Voyager data there are no discernible changes in the magnitude or latitudinal positions of wind minima and maxima. This result provides additional evidence of the long-term stability of the zonal winds. Changes in individual sites during a two week period in July 1994 have been mapped. Their evolution is consistent with zonal winds decreasing with height and it provides evidence that local circulation associated with isolated weather systems perturbs the lower stratosphere.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1996

References

Beebe, R. F. & Youngblood, L. A. 1979 Pie-Voyager velocities, accelerations and shrinkage rates of Jovian cloud features. Nature 280, 771772.Google Scholar
Beebe, R. F., Orton, G. S. & West, R. A. 1989 Time-variable nature of the Jovian cloud properties and thermal structure: an observational perspective. In Time-Variable Phenomena in the Jovian System (ed. Belton, M. J. S., West, R. A. and Rahe, J.). NASA SP-494, 245288.Google Scholar
Burrows, C. J., Clampin, M., Griffiths, R. E., Krist, J., & MacKenty, J. W. 1994 WFPC2 instrument handbook, version 2.0. Space Telescope Science Institute.Google Scholar
Chapman, C. R. 1969 Jupiter's zonal winds: variation with latitude. J. Atmos. Sci. 26, 986990.Google Scholar
Dowling, T. E. & Ingersoll, A. P. 1989 Jupiter's Great Red Spot as a shallow water system. J. Atmos. Sci. 46, 3256-78.Google Scholar
Dowling, T. E. 1993 A relationship between potential vorticity and zonal wind on Jupiter. Science 50, 1422.Google Scholar
Gierasch, P. J., Conrath, B. J., & Magalhaes, J. A. 1986 Zonal mean properties of Jupiter's upper troposphere from Voyager infrared observations. Icarus 67, 456—483.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gierasch, P. J., Conrath, B. J. 1993 Dynamics of the atmosphere of the outer planets: post-Voyager measurement objectives. J. Geophys. Res. 98, 54595469.Google Scholar
Hammel, H. B., Beebe, R. F., Ingersoll, A. P., Orton, G. S., Mills, J. R., Simon, A. A., Chodas, P., Clarke, J. T., De Jong, E., Dowling, T. E., Harrington, J., Huber, L. E., Karkoschka, E., Santori, C. M., Toigo, A., Yeomans, D. & West, R. A. 1995 Hubble Space Telescope imaging of Jupiter: atmospheric phenomenon created by the impact of comet Shoemaker-Levy 9. Science 267, 12881296.Google Scholar
Holtzman, J., Hester, J. J., Casertano, S., Trauger, J. T., Watson, A. M., Ballester, G. E., Burrows, C. J., Clarke, J. T., Crisp, D., Evans, R. W., Gallagher, J. S. III, Griffiths, R. E., Hossel, J. G., Matthews, L. D., Mould, R. J., Scowen, P. A., Stapelfeldt, K. R., & Westphal, J. A. 1995 The performance and calibration of WFPC2 on the Hubble Space Telescope. PASP 107, 156178.Google Scholar
Ingersoll, A. P. & Cuzzi, J. N. 1969 Dynamics of Jupiter's cloud bands. J. Atmos. Sci. 26, 981985.2.0.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ingersoll, A. P. Beebe, R. F., Mitchell, J. L., Garneau, G. W., Yagi, G. M., & Muller, J. P. 1981 Interactions of eddies and mean zonal flow on Jupiter as inferred from Voyager 1 and 2 images. J. Geophys. Res. 86, 87338743.Google Scholar
Ingersoll, A. P., Beebe, R. F., Conrath, B. J. & G. E., Hunt 1984 Structure and dynamics of Saturn's atmosphere. In Saturn (ed. Gehrels, T. & Matthews, M. S.), pp. 195238. Arizona Press.Google Scholar
Ingersoll, A. P. and Kanamori, H. 1996 Two waves from SL9 to probe the Jovian water cloud. Icarus Special SL-9 Issue (in press).Google Scholar
Limaye, S. S., Revercomb, H. E., Sromovsky, L. A., Krauss, R. J., Santek, D. A., Suomi, V. E., Collins, S. A., & Avis, C. C. 1982 Jovian winds from Voyager 2, part I: zonal mean circulation. J. Atmos. Sci. 39, 14131432.Google Scholar
Limaye, S. S. 1986 Jupiter: new estimates of the mean zonal flow at the cloud level. Icarus 65, 335352.Google Scholar
Marcus, P. S. 1993 Jupiter's Great Red Spot and other vortices. Ann. Rev. Astron. Astrophys. 31, 523-73.Google Scholar
Minnaert, M. 1941 The reciprocity principle in lunar photometry. Astrophys. J. 93, 403410.Google Scholar
Munoz, O., Moreno, F. and Molina, A. 1996 Aerosol properties of debris from fragments E/F of comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 Icarus Special SL9 Issue (in press).Google Scholar
Orton, G. S., Friedson, A. J., Yanamandra-Fisher, P. A., Caldwell, J., Hammel, H., Baines, K. H., Bergstralh, J. T., Martin, T. Z., West, R. A., Veeder, G. J. Jr., Lynch, D. K., Russell, R., Malcom, M. E., Golisch, W. F., Griep, D. M., KaminSki, C. D., Tokunaga, A. T., Baron, R., Herbst, T. & Shure, M. 1994 Thermal maps of Jupiter: Spatial organization and time dependence of tropospheric temperatures, 1980-1993. Science 265, 625631.Google Scholar
Peek, B. M. 1958 The Planet Jupiter. Faber and Faber.Google Scholar
Reese, E. R. (Private communication with longterm BAA & ALPO observer)Google Scholar
Simon, A. A. and Beebe, R. F. 1996 Jovian tropospheric features—wind field, morphology and motion of long-lived systems. Icarus Special SL-9 Issue (in press).Google Scholar
Smith, B. A. & Hunt, G. E. 1976 Motions and morphology of clouds in the atmosphere of Jupiter. In Jupiter, The Giant Planet (ed. Gehrels, T.) pp. 564585. Arizona Press.Google Scholar
Smith, B. A., Soderblom, L. A., Johnson, T. V., Ingersoll, A. P., Collins, S. A., Shoemaker, E. M., Hunt, G. E., Masursky, H., Carr, M., Davies, M. E., Cook, A. F., Boyce, J. M., Danielson, G. E., Owen, T., Sagan, C., Beebe, R. F., Veverka, J., Strom, R. G., McCauley, J. F., Morrison, D., Briggs, G. A. & Suomi, V.E. 1979a The Jupiter system through the eyes of Voyager 1. Science 204, 951972.Google Scholar
Smith, B. A., Soderblom, L. A., Beebe, R. F., Boyce, J. M., Briggs, G. A., Carr, M., Collins, S. A., Cook, A. F., Danielson, G. E., Davies, M. E., Hunt, G. E., Ingersoll, A. P., Johnson, T. V., Masursky, H., McCauley, J. F., Morrison, D., Owen, T., Sagan, C., Shoemaker, E. M., Strom, R., Suomi, V. E. & Veverka, J. 1979b The Galilean satellites and Jupiter: Voyager 2 imaging science results. Science 206, 927950.Google Scholar
Weaver, H. A., A'Hearn, M. F., Arpigny, C., Boice, D. C., Feldman, P. D., Larson, S. M., Lamy, P., Levy, D. H., Marsden, B. G., Meech, K. J., Noll, K. S., Scotti, J. V., Sekanina, Z., Shoemaker, C. S., Shoemaker, E. M., Smith, T. E., Stern, S. A., Storrs, A. D., Trauger, J. T., Yeomans, D. K., & Zellner, B. 1995 The Hubble Space Telescope (HST) observing campaign on Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9. Science 267, 12821287.Google Scholar
West, R. A., Friedson, A. J. & Appleby, J. F. 1992 Jovian large-scale stratospheric circulation. Icarus 100, 245259.Google Scholar
West, R. A., Strobel, D. F. &, Tomasko, M. G. 1986 Clouds, aerosols and photochemistry in the Jovian atmosphere. Icarus 65, 161217.Google Scholar
Williams, G. P. & Wilson, R. J. 1988 The stability and genesis of Rossby vortices. J. Atmos. Set. 45, 207241.Google Scholar