Modeling acousto-gravity waves in the atmosphere of Jupiter

Abstract

The modeling of wave propagation in the atmosphere of Jupiter became a topic of great interest after the discovery of the fragments of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9. Circular fronts were observed expanding from several of the impact sites [Hammel et al., Science 267, 1288–1296 (1995)], but the nature of these features has not yet been explained in terms of a wave model. This is due in part to a lack of data, which has been enhanced by direct measurements from the Galileo probe [Seiff et al., J. Geophys. Res. 103, 22<th>857–22<th>889 (1998); Atkinson et al., ibid. 103, 22911–22928 (1998)]. There have also been some recent improvements in propagation modeling using parabolic equation techniques, which can handle acousto-gravity waves [Lingevitch et al., J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 105, 3049–3056 (1999)] and the advective effects of winds [Collins et al., J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 97, 2147–2158 (1995)]. These techniques and their application using Galileo data will be presented. [Work supported by ONR.]