Wave Activity in Jupiter's North Equatorial Belt From Near-Infrared Reflectivity Observations
Wong, Michael H.; Irwin, Patrick G. J.; Orton, Glenn S.; Sinclair, James A.; Stephens, Andrew W.; Tabataba-Vakili, Fachreddin; Giles, Rohini S.
United States, United Kingdom
Abstract
High spatial resolution images of Jupiter at 1.58-2.28 μm are used to track and characterize a wave pattern observed in 2017 at a planetocentric latitude of 14°N. The wave pattern has a wave number of 18 and spans ∼5° in latitude. One bright crest remains stationary in System III longitude, while the remaining crests move slowly westward. The bright and dark regions of the near-infrared wave pattern are caused by variations in the vertical location of the upper tropospheric haze layer. A comparison with thermal infrared observations shows a correlation with temperature anomalies in the upper troposphere. The results are consistent with a Rossby wave, generated by flow around a stationary vortex.