Jupiter’s high-latitude hazes as mapped by JunoCam

The JunoCam instrument on the Juno spacecraft takes images of Jupiter’s polar regions at every perijove and reveals elaborate patterns of haze bands.  In visible-colour images, they include white bands, dark brown bands, and ‘rainbow bands’, all best seen near the terminator.   Some are also visible in methane-band images, although the relationship is complex.  By compositing JunoCam’s images into polar projection maps at most perijoves, we reveal large-scale patterns of haze bands which suggest previously unknown aspects of the high-latitude dynamics, as well as details of the polar hoods.  In the south polar region, the polar hood has a sharp wavy edge related to the southermost prograde jet, and within it (from PJ5 to PJ12) was a prominent long band with a fixed relationship to the pentagon of polar cyclones.  In the north polar region, the main polar hood has a wavy edge that appears to be confined by long linear bundles of haze in the ‘bland zone’ between the highest two prograde jets.  But the north polar hood also has extensions towards lower latitudes, with dramatic waves or swirls. 

A summary of all these features was presented to the European Planetary Science Congress in Berlin in 2018 September:

1)  Abstract (2-page PDF):   EPSC2018-559_JHR_PolarHazes.pdf

2) Full talk, including notes (Powerpoint, 2018 September) (Copyright: not to be reproduced in whole or in part without permission from John Rogers and the JunoCam team):  Juno-Polar-hazes_EPSC-talk&notes-for-Glenn.ppt