3D balanced winds and dynamics in Jupiter’s atmosphere from combined imaging and infrared observations

Abstract

A series of analyses combining feature-tracking from visible images and infrared sounding observations obtained by Voyager 1 and 2 are presented for the region surrounding Jupiter’s Great Red Spot. By making use of various dynamical balance constraints, fully three-dimensional maps of a number of meteorological variables (such as horizontal wind, isobaric geopotential height and vertical velocity) can be recovered. Such maps are of immense potential value in a variety of studies of atmospheres such as those of the outer planets, and some possible extensions of this approach to ongoing and future spacecraft missions are discussed.