Storm clouds in Jupiter's atmosphere affecting the planet's colorful belts

An astronomer from the University of California, Berkeley and her colleagues have been able to track Jupiter's storm clouds and its effects. According to the researchers, Storm clouds rooted deep in Jupiter's atmosphere are affecting the planet's white zones and colorful belts, creating disturbances in their flow and even changing their color.

These storms affect are visible as bright plumes above the planet's ammonia ice clouds, on the belts in which they appear.

Amateur astronomer Phil Miles noticed one such plume a few days in Australia. Three months earlier, four bright spots were seen slightly north of the North Equatorial Belt. Though those plumes had disappeared by 2017, the belt had since widened northward, and its northern edge had changed color from white to orangish brown.

A paper describing the results has been accepted for publication in the Astronomical Journal.

The analysis of the plumes supports the theory that they originate about 80 kilometers below the cloud tops at a place dominated by clouds of liquid water.

Into Jupiter's stratosphere

Jupiter's atmosphere is mostly hydrogen and helium, with trace amounts of methane, ammonia, hydrogen sulfide and water. The top-most cloud layer is made up of ammonia ice and comprises the brown belts and white zones we see with the naked eye. Below this outer cloud layer sits a layer of solid ammonium hydrosulfide particles. Deeper still, at around 80 kilometers below the upper cloud deck, is a layer of liquid water droplets.