3D view of an area of Jupiter's upper atmosphere (IMAGE)
Caption
A cross section of the upper atmosphere, or troposphere, of Jupiter, showing the depth of storms in a north-south swath that crosses the planet's equator, or equatorial zone (EZ). Blue and red represent, respectively, higher- and lower-than-normal abundances of ammonia gas. By tracking the ammonia, two new UC Berkeley studies show that the rapidly changing weather systems on Jupiter are mostly very shallow (left), though two types of storms — rapidly rising plumes of ammonia (center) and tornado-like vortices — punch more deeply and are responsible for unmixing atmospheric gases. Large-scale storms produce mushballs that rain downward even deeper than the plumes and vortices.
Credit
Chris Moeckel, UC Berkeley
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