Tuesday 22 January 2013

Jupiter's Weather in 2012 - BAA Report

John Rogers of the British astronomical society has just released an interim report describing the changes seen in Jupiter's weather systems over the past few months, since August of 2012. You can find the pdf file at the following link:
Jupiter2012

John has again done an incredible job of compiling a huge number of images from amateur Jupiter observers into one place, describing each region of the planet in turn. In the middle of 2012 Jupiter's northern hemisphere had a particularly dramatic appearance, but it sounds like the activity, known as revivals of the northern equatorial and temperate belts, seems to have calmed down. I was also particularly interested in the red band that had been spotted around the equator, something that hadn't been seen before, but now appears to have broken up somewhat. Finally, the report describes the close encounter between the great red spot and oval BA that occurred last autumn, leaving dramatic after effects in the planets southern tropical regions.   

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