Decades of Data Shows Strange Temperature Swings Pulsing Through Jupiter's Clouds

Something hinky is going on with Jupiter after 40 years of data.

According to a wealth of information collected by both ground- and space-based telescopes, the temperature in Jupiter's upper troposphere exhibits regular fluctuations. Scientists have been trying to understand the strange weather of the gas giant.

One part of the puzzle that has been solved is that the atmosphere shows natural cycles.

We need to explore both above and below the clouds to understand why these patterns occur.

Jupiter, the largest planet in the solar system, is very different from our home world. It's whipped by wild winds, clad in thick layers of clouds, and speckled with tempestuous storms that can grow to bigger than Earth. Scientists have difficulty understanding its extreme weather.

We know that it is ringed by alternating bands of light and dark clouds known as zones and belts. The darker belts are at least partially warmer due to the fact that the clouds are thinner.

Jupiter doesn't have a lot of tilt. The axis of the planet is related to the plane of the Sun. A strong tilt of the earth's axis points the poles towards or away from the Sun, which causes seasonal variations in temperature.

Until now, long-term datasets on the planet's heat profile haven't been available to check if this was the case. It has been this way until now.

The data from instruments on the space probes gave a team led by planetary scientist Glenn Orton decades worth of thermal data to work with.

They found temperature fluctuations with periodicities of 4-7, 7-9, and 10 to 14 years. They found that these seemed disconnected from seasonal temperature variations.

As temperatures rise at specific latitudes in the north, they go down at corresponding latitudes in the south. It's like Jupiter is a mirror that splits by the equator.

It was the most surprising of all.

The temperatures differed at very distant latitudes. It's similar to a phenomenon we see on Earth, where weather and climate patterns in one region can have a noticeable influence on weather elsewhere.

A clue can be found in Jupiter's atmosphere, in the clear stratospheric layer that sits above the cloudy troposphere. At Jupiter's equator, temperature variations in the troposphere are similar to those in the stratosphere. The idea is that whatever is happening at higher altitudes is affecting what is happening below.

This study is an important part of the puzzle that may one day help scientists understand and predict Jovian weather.

If we can connect cause and effect in Jupiter's atmosphere, it will be possible to have a full-on Jupiter weather forecast. If we can someday extend this to other giant planets to see if similar patterns show up, that's the bigger picture.

The research was published in a journal.