A Long-lived and Color Changing Oval on Jupiter’s NTrZ (at 19ºN)

Abstract:

A long lived oval located in the boundary between the North Tropical Zone and the North Equatorial Band (NEBn) of Jupiter at 19º of planetographic latitude is being observed at least since 2008. At this latitude the mean wind profile of the planet provide winds of around 10 m/s [1]. Since 2012 and using the PVOL image database of Jupiter (http://www.pvol.ehu.es/pvol/) we have tracked it observing and characterizing its changes. In this period of time, it has merged with another oval (in February 2013) and it has changed it color from white to red (in September 2013) and again white. We have also performed some EPIC simulations of the merger between both ovals. Thanks to Hubble Space Telescope data in Septembers 2012, we have also been able to measure its internal rotation while it was white, unfortunately this set of images only have observations in the near infrared (F763M) and in the ultraviolet (F275W). And finally, using HST and PlanetCam (a planetary camera developed in our research team) images, we are trying to measure the color and the altitude-opacity indexes [2] to assess the color change it has suffered.

Acknowledgements: This work has been funded by the Spanish MICIIN proyect AYA2012-36666 with FEDER support, Grupos Gobierno Vasco IT765-13 and UPV/EHU UFI11/55.

[1] García-Melendo & Sanchéz-Lavega., Icarus, 152, 136 (2001).

[2] Sánchez-Lavega et al., JGR, 118, 1-21 (2013).