How will dust from Shoemaker‐Levy 9 alter Jupiter's stratospheric aerosol populations?

Abstract

Jupiter's stratospheric haze is most abundant in the polar regions. This polar stratospheric haze has a distinctive signature: bright polar caps are visible in methane absorption band images at 0.89 µm. The upcoming Shoemaker‐Levy 9 impacts should significantly add to the stratospheric haze population, as a result of direct dust impact and perhaps as a result of a splash component of dust explosively ejected from the impact sites. The extra material will predominantly land in the southern hemisphere. Comet dust has a low albedo, and will generally lower Jupiter's brightness in continuum images, particularly near the limb. However, in the 0.89 µm methane absorption band images we expect Jupiter to brighten in dust impact regions, since the dust scatters light above most of the methane absorbers. Stratospheric sedimentation times are generally on the order of years, so this new haze component will be persistent.