Bibcode
Kasaba, Y.; Sato, T. M.; Campins, H.; Burgasser, A. J.; Bjorkman, K.; Trilling, D.; Thomas, C.; Rivkin, A.; Grundy, W.; Emery, J.; Binzel, R.; Volquardsen, E.; Reddy, V.; Shara, M.; Golisch, W.; Griep, D.; Sears, P.; Kalas, P.; McConnell, N.; Cecconi, M.; Clarke, J. T.; Noll, K.; Pedraz, S.; Wesley, A.; Mousis, O.; Ortiz, J. L.; García-Rojas, J.; Simon-Miller, A.; Barrado-Izagirre, N.; Marchis, F.; Wong, M.; Hammel, H. B.; Yanamandra-Fisher, P.; Fletcher, L. N.; García-Melendo, E.; Gomez-Forrellad, J. M.; de Pater, I.; Hueso, R.; Pérez-Hoyos, S.; Orton, G. S.; Sánchez-Lavega, A.; Ziffer, J.; Mirzoyan, R.; Fitzgerald, M.; Bouy, H.
Referencia bibliográfica
Icarus, Volume 214, Issue 2, p. 462-476.
Fecha de publicación:
8
2011
Revista
Número de citas
11
Número de citas referidas
10
Descripción
We present a study of the long-term evolution of the cloud of aerosols
produced in the atmosphere of Jupiter by the impact of an object on 19
July 2009 (Sánchez-Lavega, A. et al. [2010]. Astrophys. J. 715,
L155-L159). The work is based on images obtained during 5 months from
the impact to 31 December 2009 taken in visible continuum wavelengths
and from 20 July 2009 to 28 May 2010 taken in near-infrared deep
hydrogen-methane absorption bands at 2.1-2.3 μm. The impact cloud
expanded zonally from ˜5000 km (July 19) to 225,000 km (29
October, about 180° in longitude), remaining meridionally localized
within a latitude band from 53.5°S to 61.5°S planetographic
latitude. During the first two months after its formation the site
showed heterogeneous structure with 500-1000 km sized embedded spots.
Later the reflectivity of the debris field became more homogeneous due
to clump mergers. The cloud was mainly dispersed in longitude by the
dominant zonal winds and their meridional shear, during the initial
stages, localized motions may have been induced by thermal perturbation
caused by the impact's energy deposition. The tracking of individual
spots within the impact cloud shows that the westward jet at 56.5°S
latitude increases its eastward velocity with altitude above the
tropopause by 5-10 m s -1. The corresponding vertical wind
shear is low, about 1 m s -1 per scale height in agreement
with previous thermal wind estimations. We found evidence for discrete
localized meridional motions with speeds of 1-2 m s -1. Two
numerical models are used to simulate the observed cloud dispersion. One
is a pure advection of the aerosols by the winds and their shears. The
other uses the EPIC code, a nonlinear calculation of the evolution of
the potential vorticity field generated by a heat pulse that simulates
the impact. Both models reproduce the observed global structure of the
cloud and the dominant zonal dispersion of the aerosols, but not the
details of the cloud morphology. The reflectivity of the impact cloud
decreased exponentially with a characteristic timescale of 15 days; we
can explain this behavior with a radiative transfer model of the cloud
optical depth coupled to an advection model of the cloud dispersion by
the wind shears. The expected sedimentation time in the stratosphere
(altitude levels 5-100 mbar) for the small aerosol particles forming the
cloud is 45-200 days, thus aerosols were removed vertically over the
long term following their zonal dispersion. No evidence of the cloud was
detected 10 months after the impact.