Justice - summary of findings - part two: the clouds

In comparative studies, a great similarity has been found between certain oceanic currents on Earth and the bands that characterize large gaseous planets such as Jupiter

atmosphere

In a report delivered in March 1996, it was reported that the information transmitted to Israel by the capsule that penetrated the atmosphere indicates that the ratio between the main components - 71% hydrogen and 24% helium - is close to that of the sun. According to this data, the main mass of Jupiter has not changed since its formation. According to the analysis of the findings, the amounts of heavier elements such as carbon, nitrogen and sulfur are higher than in the sun. This means that the influx of meteorites and small luminous bodies that hit Jupiter played a more important role in the formation of Jupiter (11). In testing the diatrium (an isotope of hydrogen) it became clear that its concentration is similar to that found in the sun and fundamentally different from its concentration in comets and oceans on Earth. According to this finding, comets had no significant effect on the composition of the atmosphere (12). According to the findings, there must be some mechanism that keeps the helium away from Jupiter because the outer layers of the Sun have lost this element. This process in the evolution of Jupiter started later than thought (12). Minimal amounts of organic substances were also found, which indicates that complex compounds of carbon and hydrogen are rare and therefore the chances of finding biological activity similar to what is known on Earth are small (11).

A 4-year follow-up revealed larger than previously thought amounts of argon, krypton and xenon, 3 times what is found in the Sun. These findings force the researchers to form new concepts about the formation of the planet and possibly also about the solar system. These elements do not connect to other elements. They are rare or do not exist at all in bodies located inside the orbit of Neptune, an area where temperatures are relatively high compared to what is beyond the orbit of this planet. The obvious question is what is the origin of this high explosiveness. 3 possibilities have been put forward to explain the phenomenon. One possibility is that the nebula from which the solar system was formed was colder than is accepted in the various models dealing with the formation of the solar system. A second possibility is that Jupiter formed in a place more distant from its current location and migrated inward. A third possibility is that the planetesimals began to form at an earlier stage and at a higher speed before the disk of the solar system began to heat up (13).

Ammonia phosphine and water vapor can condense and create a complex climate. The information that came from Galileo showed that water in particular, can change. This figure can indicate their low explosiveness when Galileo's capsule entered the atmosphere (3).

Lightning mainly appears in belts and is associated with high and bright clouds that appear suddenly and grow in a span of days to dimensions of 1000 km in diameter. The atmospheric pressure at the top of the clouds is hundreds of millibars, a place where there can be condensation of water vapor, ammonia and hydrogen sulfide. Next to these clouds are clouds whose pressure is more than 3 atmospheres and the only thing that condenses in them is water. Based on the explosiveness of water deep in the atmosphere, it is estimated that the atmospheric pressure at the base of the water cloud is 6 bar. Water is the main electrification agent. The rate of condensation of the other materials is more limited because their explosiveness is smaller than that of water (14).

On the face of Jupiter you see horizontal bands from pole to pole, the bands are alternately dark and light. The dark bands are called belts and the light bands are called zones. Belts have a chaotic appearance and zones have a more uniform structure. The jet streams of the zones are located on the boundary line between the belts and the zones. The jet streams of the zones located in the boundary line facing the poles of the belts move west. Those on the boundary line facing the poles of the zones move eastward. Therefore the belts are cyclones and the zones are anticyclones. Galileo's findings show that the lightning occurs mainly in the belts and is related to the light and thick cloud clusters (14). The accepted assessment was that the zones are places where the atmosphere rises up because on Earth clouds are formed as a result of rising air. Based on the assessment that what goes up must come down, the belts were treated as places where the air descends. Based on Cassini's findings, it became clear that there are storms rising up there as well. 43 storms were found. The emerging picture is that the belts are the place where the air rises up and that in the zones the movement is downwards. These observations overturn the assessment that was accepted for 50 years (15).

Comparative studies have found a great similarity between certain oceanic currents on Earth and the bands that characterize large gaseous planets such as Jupiter. Jupiter's visible bands are formed by clouds moving along an array of steady, alternating currents. It turned out that the oceans on Earth contain stable currents that alternate between themselves. This similarity probably contains more than is seen in observations of the zonal currents in the outer planets. The energy spectrum of the oceanic currents behaves according to a law corresponding to the spectrum of the currents of the outer zones. This observation raises the question of whether this similarity originates from similar physical laws. In order to answer this question, it is necessary to define what the physical processes are that operate in enormous dynamics in both systems. According to the assessment, the origin of these two phenomena is in an eddy current that is below the observed phenomenon (16).

The New Horizon imaged medium-sized gravitational waves in the equatorial region of the atmosphere. Such buoyancy waves are also found on Earth. They can be caused in a situation where an air current passes over a mountain and a downward moving cloud develops. Jupiter has no mountains, but if the atmospheric conditions on Jupiter are right, a long chain of these small waves can form. The source of these waves is probably deep in the atmosphere below the visible clouds, where a pressure of 10 atmospheres prevails. The speed of these waves is 360 km/h, faster than the clouds around them, equivalent to 25% of the speed of sound on Earth. Higher speed than models predicted for this type of waves (17).

climate

The combination of cold, dry air with warm, moist air makes the atmosphere an ideal place for wild weather patterns. In several places the air rises upwards, condenses and creates clouds of huge dimensions and strips of bright colors. In other places the air sinks and creates dark strips and also dark hot spots (18). Based on observations from the Hubble Telescope and the Keck Observatory, the possibility was raised in 2004 that Jupiter is in the midst of a global climate change. According to a report given in 2008, Jupiter becomes hotter near the equator and colder near the south pole (19). In 2000-1998, 3 major storms merged and probably had an effect on the entire planet's climate. The South Pole is cooling and the equator is warming. The recent upwelling is probably Jupiter's way of adapting to climate change (20).

clouds
Jupiter's cloud structure is complex. The most effective way to refer to this is from 5 aspects that allow the overall view.
1. The nature of the haze near the tropopause (the boundary between the tropopause and the stratosphere) and above it, which forms the upper layer or layers.
2. The main cloud layer that is in the pressure range of 0.7-1.5 atmospheres. It probably contains ammonia and NH4SH and they are the main causes of opacity - the changing appearances of Jupiter in the visible and infrared regions.
3. The deep cloud layer, near the limit of remote sensing capability, a layer that is prominently aquatic.
4. Horizontal changes in the layers specified in the previous three aspects, especially in the third aspect.
5. The structure of the clouds in compact formations like vortices of enormous dimensions, in particular the great red spot.

The white clouds that form many of the formations seen in the atmosphere contain ammonia ice. This information was arrived at based on laboratory measurements and models. Ammonia condenses to ice at pressures of 0.7-1 atmospheres and at temperatures suitable for condensation and the spectral properties of these clouds are suitable for ammonia. Ammonia clouds are optically thick in the cloudy ZONES in the visible and near-infrared, but are semi-transparent at wavelengths of 5 microns and longer. These clouds are responsible for the formations seen on Jupiter in observations from Earth and in space observations.

Most of the radiation measured spectroscopically was probably generated below the ammonia clouds and scattered through it, and the emission in the belts is probably diluted by clouds of ammonia ice. Histograms of brightness at 5 microns on the night side show a narrow peak at -108C (1 atmosphere) and a broader peak at -33C (3.5 atmospheres) for zones and belts respectively. The day-night differences of 5 microns show that solar reflection and thermal radiation emission contribute to the day-side emission. The spectrum corresponding to the nocturnal flux at 5 microns shows that it originates from thermal emission diluted by the ammonia cloud.

Thermochemical models predict that deeper below the ammonia clouds there is a cloud of ammonium hydrochloride (KA3H2S or NH4SH) that will condense at a temperature of -93°C and a pressure of 1.5 atmospheres. The NH4SH cloud has large particles and is the cause of the change in the opacity of Jupiter in the infrared wavelengths. This figure raises the possibility that the NH4SH ammonia clouds develop in the same place.

The water clouds observed by thermochemical models based on measurements of the Galileo capsule, are in the vicinity of 5 atmospheres. In another transparent area near the Great Red Spot, a deep cloud was discovered with a length of 1000 km and a pressure of 4 atmospheres, which is interpreted as a water cloud since there is no other material on Jupiter that condenses at such an atmospheric pressure (21).

The cloud bands are associated with very fast jet streams. The movement of the clouds is towards the east and towards the west and the speeds can reach hundreds of kilometers per hour. On Earth parallel winds stop near the ground. There is no land on Jupiter and the profile of the winds depends on the energy source or the energy source is internal (like contraction due to gravity). The winds will remain strong or get stronger with the depth. The opposite is true if the energy source is external (like sunlight). Tracking the radio signals from the Galileo capsule showed that the speed of the winds increased as they penetrated deeper into the atmosphere and then leveled off, indicating that Jupiter's atmosphere is driven by an internal heat source (12).

Already in the first orbit around Jupiter, the Galileo spacecraft using the infrared mapping spectrometer discovered a young cloud with pure ammonia ice. This was the first time an ammonia cloud was observed on Jupiter. The name given to this cloud is the turbulent wake anomaly because it is located below the Great Red Spot. Tests conducted between 5/1999-5/2000 showed that this cloud is a high concentration of ammonia ice particles. The size of the cloud is 15 km and it is in a swirling place at the southwestern end of the great red spot (22).

In the 80's of the 20th century changes in various configurations in the atmosphere were noticed in terrestrial observations. This was also the case with the observations of the Hubble telescope in the 90s. After placing it in orbit around the Earth. The Hubble telescope made observations between 25.3.2007-5.6.2007 and dramatic changes in the atmosphere were observed that had not been seen before using this telescope. A rapid change in color and clouds near the equator was observed which gave the planet a new global look. In one photograph a thin strip of white clouds was observed near the equator. The white color indicates clouds at many heights in the atmosphere. The white color turned brown and allowed observation of clouds deeper in the atmosphere. The entire strip was probably merged with a strip below it. The small eddies changed to large wavy formations on the right side of the image. What is dominant in the image is a dark configuration similar to a snake. Below the equator a configuration of a shark's fin with its upper side facing downwards, disappears at the right end of the image. In its place, brown tongue-shaped clouds are seen accompanied by a stream of eddies below them (23).

The total ammonia-containing clouds observed by the New Horizon constitute only 1% of the cloud surface that this spacecraft examined. During two Jupiter days (20 hours) on 26.2.2000/2.5/09340 from a distance of 24 million km the spacecraft initially observed the northwestern part of the Great Red Spot with the aim of finding the ammonia clouds. They were first seen by the Galileo spacecraft. While Galileo was observing, the area was very stormy. In the months before and during the observation of the New Horizon the area was quiet. Despite this, the spacecraft noticed other places where ammonia clouds rise. In photo PIAXNUMX you see the development of such a cloud. These new clouds of ammonia originate from the rise of gases from the depths of the atmosphere to the heights. In this case water also rises up and as a result it condenses (XNUMX).

New Horizons also observed heat affecting polar lightning, indicating that heat moves through water clouds at all latitudes of Jupiter. For the first time at all, thanks to this spacecraft, it was possible to make detailed measurements of "waves" moving across the width of the planet, which indicates a strong activity of storms in the depths (25).

11. Douglas I. Hutchison A.- "Galileo scientist report changing findings about Jupiter" 18.03.1996
12. Torrence VJ - "The Galileo mission to Jupiter and its moon" Scientific American 2.2002 p.40-49
13. Britt RR – "Jupiter's composition through planet-formation theories into disarray" 17.11.1999
http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/solarsystem/jupiter _991117.html
14. Ingersoll AD et al. – "Moist convection as an energy source for the large-scale motions in Jupiter's atmosphere"
Nature vol. 403 February 2000 pp. 630-631
15. "Rising storms revise story of Jupiter's stripes" 10.3.2003
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/jupiter-clouds-03a.html
16. "Link discovered between Earth's ocean currents and Jupiter's bands" 22.1.2004
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/jupiter-clouds-04G63.html
17. PIA10097: Atmospheric waves
http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA10097
18. Weinstock M. - "Fallan Galileo probe uncovers secrets of Jupiter's hot spots" 6.9.2000
http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/solarsystem/jupiter-hotspots.html
19. "New red spots appear on Jupiter" 23.5.2008
http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/New_Red_Spots_Appears_On_Jupiter_999.html
20. Brit RR- "Jupiter's great spot is shrinking" 3.9.2009
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29604064/
21. Taylor F. Irwin P. – “The clouds of Jupiter” June 1999
Astronomy and Geophysics vol. 40 pages 321-325
22. "Galileo spies Ammonia ice clouds" 24.10.2000
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/galileo_00o.html
23. "Hubble catches Jupiter changing its stripes" 29.1.2007
http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Hubble_Catches_Jupiter_ Changing_Its_Stripes_999.html
24. PIA09340: Probing storm activity on Jupiter
http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA09340
25. "Pluto bound new horizons sees changes in Jupiter system" 10.10.2007
http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Pluto_Bound_New_Horizins_ Sees_Changes_In_Jupiter_System_999.html