A study of the temporal behavior of the vertical structure of Jupiter's atmosphere

In an effort to detect and quantify vertical structure changes in Jupiter's atmosphere, the planet was imaged in several wavelength passbands on five separate nights spanning two complete Jovian apparitions using a CCD camera. The wavelength passbands included broadband blue and red filters and narrowband filters in the 618, 727, 890, and 970 nm methane absorption bands. These images were photometrically calibrated using spectrophotometric standard stars. Constrained image deconvolution was used to minimize the effects of astronomical seeing on the spatial resolution of the images. Radiative transfer calculations using a multiple scattering doubling-adding method were used to construct theoretical atmospheric models capable of predicting the center-to-limb variation for belts and zones. The model consisted of one high stratospheric haze, one upper tropospheric cloud, and a lower, semi-infinite cloud. During the observation period, the SEB brightened drastically and the EZ darkened gradually. The STrZ has remained bright throughout the period. The theoretical models constructed to fit the center-to-limb variation for these regions show that the brightening of the SEB and the gradual darkening of the EZ can be explained with a change in the optical thickness of the upper cloud and a change in the single scattering albedo for the particles within the cloud. No changes in the pressure level of any of the cloud layers were necessary in the vertical structure models for the period of observation to adequately predict the center-to-limb variation of each region.