Observations by the Juno spacecraft have shown that Jupiter's Great Red Spot goes hundreds of kilometers deep and is getting hotter.
Jupiter's Great Red Spot (BKP) has been weakening and decreasing over the past centuries, but it still remains the largest and longest atmospheric vortex in the entire solar system. Elongated in the direction of the global winds, along the latitudes of the gas planet, it noticeably exceeds our Earth in size. Its width reaches 16 thousand km, length - 40 thousand km. But how deep does the BKP go down into the stormy atmosphere of the giant?
Scott Bolton, head of the Juno probe's scientific mission, spoke about this at a meeting of the American Geophysical Union. Scientists analyzed the results of the first flight of the device over the BKP, made in mid-summer 2017. At the same time, he was able to look far into the thick clouds using the MWR microwave radiometer.
“Juno's data shows that the roots of the Solar System's most famous hurricane … are about 200 miles - 300 km deep into the atmosphere,” said Scott Bolton. - They are 50-100 times deeper than the Earth's oceans and at the base they are hotter than above. The winds are related to temperature differences, and the heat at the base of the BKP explains the fierce winds we see in the upper atmosphere."
The six-channel MWR instrument allows to look deep into the Hurricane BKP and measure its temperature / NASA JPL.
In addition, Juno instruments made it possible to notice a previously unknown radiation zone above Jupiter's equator, above its dense atmosphere. High-energy ions, flying at almost light speeds, ions of oxygen, sulfur, and also protons are registered here. Scientists speculate that the sources of these particles are molecules ejected from Jupiter's moons - Io and Europa - that ionized as they approached the planet.
Sergey Vasiliev
