Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

Heating of Jupiter’s upper atmosphere above the Great Red Spot

Abstract

The temperatures of giant-planet upper atmospheres at mid- to low latitudes are measured to be hundreds of degrees warmer than simulations based on solar heating alone can explain1,2,3,4. Modelling studies that focus on additional sources of heating have been unable to resolve this major discrepancy. Equatorward transport of energy from the hot auroral regions was expected to heat the low latitudes, but models have demonstrated that auroral energy is trapped at high latitudes, a consequence of the strong Coriolis forces on rapidly rotating planets3,4,5. Wave heating, driven from below, represents another potential source of upper-atmospheric heating, though initial calculations have proven inconclusive for Jupiter, largely owing to a lack of observational constraints on wave parameters6,7. Here we report that the upper atmosphere above Jupiter’s Great Red Spot—the largest storm in the Solar System—is hundreds of degrees hotter than anywhere else on the planet. This hotspot, by process of elimination, must be heated from below, and this detection is therefore strong evidence for coupling between Jupiter’s lower and upper atmospheres, probably the result of upwardly propagating acoustic or gravity waves.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: The acquisition of Jovian spectra.
Figure 2: Model fit to observed H3+ intensity as a function of wavelength.
Figure 3: Jovian H3+ temperatures versus planetocentric latitude.

References

  1. Strobel, D. F. & Smith, G. R. On the temperature of the Jovian thermosphere. J. Atmos. Sci. 30, 718–725 (1973)

    Article  CAS  ADS  Google Scholar 

  2. Miller, S., Aylward, A. & Millward, G. in The Outer Planets and their Moons Vol. 19 of Space Sciences Series of ISSI 116, 319–343 (2005)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Smith, C. G. A., Aylward, A. D., Millward, G. H., Miller, S. & Moore, L. E. An unexpected cooling effect in Saturn’s upper atmosphere. Nature 445, 399–401 (2007)

    Article  CAS  ADS  Google Scholar 

  4. Yates, J. N., Achilleos, N. & Guio, P. Response of the Jovian thermosphere to a transient pulse in solar wind pressure. Planet. Space Sci. 91, 27–44 (2014)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  5. Smith, C. G. A. & Aylward, A. D. Coupled rotational dynamics of Jupiter’s thermosphere and magnetosphere. Ann. Geophys. 27, 199–230 (2009)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  6. Hickey, M. P., Walterscheid, R. L. & Schubert, G. Gravity wave heating and cooling in Jupiter’s thermosphere. Icarus 148, 266–281 (2000)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  7. Matcheva, K. I. & Strobel, D. F. Heating of Jupiter’s thermosphere by dissipation of gravity waves due to molecular viscosity and heat conduction. Icarus 140, 328–340 (1999)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  8. Rayner, J. T. et al. SpeX: a medium-resolution 0.8–5.5 micron spectrograph and imager for the NASA infrared telescope facility. Publ. Astron. Soc. Pacif. 115, 362–382 (2003)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  9. Parisi, M., Galanti, E., Finocchiaro, S., Iess, L. & Kaspi, Y. Probing the depth of Jupiter’s Great Red Spot with the Juno gravity experiment. Icarus 267, 232–242 (2016)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  10. Melin, H., Miller, S., Stallard, T., Smith, C. & Grodent, D. Estimated energy balance in the Jovian upper atmosphere during an auroral heating event. Icarus 181, 256–265 (2006)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  11. O’Donoghue, J. et al. Conjugate observations of Saturn’s northern and southern H3+ aurorae. Icarus 229, 214–220 (2014)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  12. Uno, T. et al. Vertical emissivity profiles of Jupiter’s northern H3+ and H2 infrared auroras observed by Subaru/IRCS. J. Geophys. Res. 119, 10,219–10,241 (2014)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Miller, S. et al. H3+: the driver of giant planet atmospheres. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. 364, 3121–3137 (2006)

    Article  CAS  ADS  Google Scholar 

  14. Lystrup, M. B., Miller, S., Dello Russo, N., Vervack, R. J. Jr & Stallard, T. First vertical ion density profile in Jupiter’s auroral atmosphere: direct observations using the Keck II telescope. Astrophys. J. 677, 790–797 (2008)

    Article  CAS  ADS  Google Scholar 

  15. Yelle, R. V. & Miller, S. in Jupiter’s Thermosphere and Ionosphere 185–218 (Cambridge Univ. Press, 2004)

  16. Cowley, S. W. H. et al. A simple axisymmetric model of magnetosphere-ionosphere coupling currents in Jupiter’s polar ionosphere. J. Geophys. Res. 110, 11209 (2005)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  17. Lam, H. A. et al. A baseline spectroscopic study of the infrared auroras of Jupiter. Icarus 127, 379–393 (1997)

    Article  CAS  ADS  Google Scholar 

  18. Müller-Wodarg, I. C. F. et al. Magnetosphere–atmosphere coupling at Saturn: 1—Response of thermosphere and ionosphere to steady state polar forcing. Icarus 221, 481–494 (2012)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  19. Watkins, C. & Cho, J. Y.-K. The vertical structure of Jupiter’s equatorial zonal wind above the cloud deck, derived using mesoscale gravity waves. Geophys. Res. Lett. 40, 472–476 (2013)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  20. Hickey, M. P., Schubert, G. & Walterscheid, R. L. Acoustic wave heating of the thermosphere. J. Geophys. Res. 106, 21543–21548 (2001)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  21. Walterscheid, R. L., Schubert, G. & Brinkman, D. G. Acoustic waves in the upper mesosphere and lower thermosphere generated by deep tropical convection. J. Geophys. Res. 108, 1392 (2003)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  22. Schubert, G., Hickey, M. P. & Walterscheid, R. L. Heating of Jupiter’s thermosphere by the dissipation of upward propagating acoustic waves. Icarus 163, 398–413 (2003)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  23. Flasar, F. M. et al. Thermal structure and dynamics of the Jovian atmosphere. I. The Great Red Spot. J. Geophys. Res. 86, 8759–8767 (1981)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  24. Fletcher, L. N. et al. Thermal structure and composition of Jupiter’s Great Red Spot from high-resolution thermal imaging. Icarus 208, 306–328 (2010)

    Article  CAS  ADS  Google Scholar 

  25. Neale, L., Miller, S. & Tennyson, J. Spectroscopic properties of the H3+ molecule: a new calculated line list. Astrophys. J. 464, 516–520 (1996)

    Article  CAS  ADS  Google Scholar 

  26. Miller, S., Stallard, T., Melin, H. & Tennyson, J. H3+ cooling in planetary atmospheres. Faraday Discuss. 147, 283–291 (2010)

    Article  CAS  ADS  Google Scholar 

  27. Melin, H. et al. On the anticorrelation between H3+ temperature and density in giant planet ionospheres. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 438, 1611–1617 (2014)

    Article  CAS  ADS  Google Scholar 

  28. Stallard, T. S. et al. Temperature changes and energy inputs in giant planet atmospheres: what we are learning from H3+. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. 370, 5213–5224 (2012)

    Article  CAS  ADS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

We thank the Infrared Telescope Facility, which is operated by the University of Hawaii under contract NNH14CK55B with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). We are grateful to the observing staff at the Infrared Telescope Facility and Mauna Kea Observatory. This work was funded by NASA under grant number 9500303356 issued through the Planetary Astronomy Program (to L.M. and J.O’D). The UK Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) supported this work through the Studentship Enhancement Programme (STEP) for J.O’D., and consolidated grant support for T.S.S. and H.M. (ST/N000749/1). The Royal Astronomical Society partially funded travel to take the observations. We are grateful for the planetary ephemerides that were provided by the Planetary Data System.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Contributions

J.O’D. collected, analysed and interpreted the data and wrote the paper. L.M. greatly assisted in the data reduction, analysis, interpretation and writing of the paper. T.S.S. helped with the analysis and interpretation of the data. H.M. assisted in the collection and reduction of data, and provided computer code necessary for the analysis of data. All authors provided comments on the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to J. O’Donoghue.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing financial interests.

Additional information

Reviewer Information

Nature thanks J. Cho, M. Flasar and J. Sinclair for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

PowerPoint slides

Source data

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

O’Donoghue, J., Moore, L., Stallard, T. et al. Heating of Jupiter’s upper atmosphere above the Great Red Spot. Nature 536, 190–192 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature18940

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nature18940

This article is cited by

Comments

By submitting a comment you agree to abide by our Terms and Community Guidelines. If you find something abusive or that does not comply with our terms or guidelines please flag it as inappropriate.

Search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing