1. NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, Code 693, Greenbelt, Maryland 20771, USA
2. Department of Astronomy, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742, USA
3. Science Systems and Applications, Inc., 5900 Princess Garden Parkway, Suite 300, Lanham, Maryland 20706, USA
4. Department of Astronomy, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14853, USA
5. LESIA, CNRS-FRE 2461, Observatoire de Paris, 5 place Jules Janssen, F-91925 Meudon Cedex, France
6. Atmospheric, Oceanic, and Planetary Physics, Clarendon Laboratory, Parks Rd, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3PU, UK
7. Jet Propulsion Laboratory, 4800 Oak Grove Drive, Pasadena, California 91109, USA
8. CEA Saclay, Service d'Astrophysique, 91191 Gif-sur-Yvette Cedex, France
9. University of Hawaii, Institute of Astronomy, 2680 Woodlawn Drive, Honolulu, Hawaii 96822, USA
10. NASA/Marshall Space Flight Center, SD50 NSSTC, Huntsville, Alabama 35812, USA
11. LISA, Université de Paris 7 & 12, CNRS – UMR 7583, 61 Ave. General de Gaulle, 94010 Creteil Cedex, France
12. Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Cardiff, 5 The Parade, Cardiff CF24 3YB, UK
13. European Southern Observatory, Karl-Schwarzschild-strasse 2, 85748 Garching bei Muenchen, Germany
14. Gesamthochschule Wuppertal, Department of Physics, Gausstrasse 20, 5600 Wuppertal 1, Germany
15. Instituto di Astrofisica Spaziale – CNR, Area della recerca di Tor Vergata, Via del Fosso del Cavaliere 100, Rome, I-00133 Italy

Correspondence to: F. M. Flasar¹ Email: f.m.flasar@nasa.gov

Abstract

The Earth's equatorial stratosphere shows oscillations in which the east–west winds reverse direction and the temperatures change cyclically with a period of about two years^{1, 2}. This phenomenon, called the quasi-biennial oscillation, also affects the dynamics of the mid- and high-latitude stratosphere and weather in the lower atmosphere². Ground-based observations have suggested^{3, 4, 5} that similar temperature oscillations (with a 4–5-yr cycle) occur on Jupiter, but these data suffer from poor vertical resolution and Jupiter's stratospheric wind velocities have not yet been determined. Here we report maps of temperatures and winds with high spatial resolution, obtained from spacecraft measurements of infrared spectra of Jupiter's stratosphere. We find an intense, high-altitude equatorial jet with a speed of 140 m s^-1, whose spatial structure resembles that of a quasi-quadrennial oscillation. Wave activity in the stratosphere also appears analogous to that occurring on Earth. A strong interaction between Jupiter and its plasma environment produces hot spots in its upper atmosphere and stratosphere near its poles^{6, 7, 8, 9}, and the temperature maps define the penetration of the hot spots into the stratosphere.

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