Latitudinal Temperature Variations of Jovian H+3

✍ Scribed by Gilda E. Ballester; Steven Miller; Jonathan Tennyson; Laurence M. Trafton; Thomas R. Geballe

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1994
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 364 KB
• Volume: 107
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0019-1035
• DOI: 10.1006/icar.1994.1015

✦ Synopsis

A spectral image of Jupiter centred on (3.45 \mu \mathrm{m}), taken on the night of April 2, 1992, using cooled grating spectrometer CGS4 on the United Kingdom Infrared Telescope, shows that features due to the (\nu_{2}) ro-vibrational band of (\mathrm{H}_{3}^{+})extend right across the planet. Analysis of these features indicates that the jovian disk may be divided into three regions-two mid-high latitude regions with temperatures around (800 \mathrm{~K}) and a hotter, central region with a temperature around (1200 \mathrm{~K}). The central meridian longitude of the image in the jovian System III is (102^{\circ}), coinciding with the region of the Lyman- (\alpha) Bulge. The significance of new work on the bulge for understanding this image is discussed. The image also shows an interesting doublet centred on (3.52 \mu \mathrm{m}). Candidates for this feature are discussed; none is found to be satisfactory. 1994 Acadenic Press, Inc.