Belt‐zone variations in the Jovian cloud structure

Abstract

Voyager IRIS observations of Jupiter in the far infrared (180–1200 cm−1) are sensitive to emission originating from pressures less than 2 bars, while the 5‐μm (1800–2300 cm−1) observations are primarily sensitive to emission originating from pressures greater than 2 bars. We use these differences in the location of the peak emission level to constrain the properties of the upper tropospheric cloud structure from the far‐infrared observations and then use the 5‐μm observations, with the upper tropospheric cloud structure fixed, to constrain the deep cloud structure. The relationship between observed 45‐ and 5‐μm brightness temperatures reveals three distinct regions between ±25° latitude: North Equatorial Belt hot spots, which are “hot” at both 45 and 5 μm; Equatorial Zone spectra, which are “warm” at 45 μm and “cold” at 5 μm; and North Tropical Zone spectra, which are “cold” at both 45 and 5 μm. We find that the hot extreme spectral ensemble is unique to belts, and the cold extreme spectral ensembles are unique to zones, but that all other intermediate spectral ensembles are common to both regions. Analyses of these spectra using an anisotropic multiple scattering radiative transfer model reveal that the primary difference between belts and zones is the increased opacity and vertical extent of clouds in zones relative to their belt counterparts. In addition, we find a shift in the location of the para hydrogen gradient toward lower pressures in zones, with an increase in the “equilibrated” cloud‐top para fraction. We suggest that all of the variations in gas abundance profiles, temperature, and cloud structure are consistent with the effects of a simple mean circulation and large‐scale wave motions.