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 IOPW NEWS

 		  Last Update:  2010/May/06
CURRENT NEWS
    • Oval BA: Inminent interaction and possible merger with WO - 15 June 2010

      Images by different observers show BA is interacting with and adjacent WO. Observers are encouraged to get images of the oval interaction for the next few days. The interaction may lead to many phenomena, oval fussion or circulation of the smaller WO around BA and/or partial destruction of the oval. Every Jupiter rotation will show different phases of the interaction for the next days. Observations in the visible range but also in the 890 nm methane absorption band and/or UV (both sensitive to the atmospheric higher layers) will be very useful to understand the interaction of large vortices on Jupiter at different atmospheric heights. These are ephemeris of the transit of both ovals in Jupiter central meridian generated with WinJupos by J.M. Gómez.       
          Date        UT
2010 Jun 17  | 06:21
2010 Jun 17  | 16:17
2010 Jun 18  | 02:12
2010 Jun 18  | 12:08
2010 Jun 18  | 22:03
2010 Jun 19  | 07:58
2010 Jun 19  | 17:54

2010 Jun 20  | 03:49
2010 Jun 20  | 13:45
2010 Jun 20  | 23:40
2010 Jun 21  | 09:36
2010 Jun 21  | 19:31
2010 Jun 22  | 05:26
2010 Jun 22  | 15:22
2010 Jun 23  | 01:17
2010 Jun 23  | 11:13
2010 Jun 23  | 21:08

2010 Jun 24  | 07:03
2010 Jun 24  | 16:59
2010 Jun 25  | 02:54
2010 Jun 25  | 12:50
2010 Jun 25  | 22:45
2010 Jun 26  | 08:40
2010 Jun 26  | 18:36

2010 Jun 27  | 04:31
2010 Jun 27  | 14:27
2010 Jun 28  | 00:22
2010 Jun 28  | 10:17
2010 Jun 28  | 20:13
2010 Jun 29  | 06:08
2010 Jun 29  | 16:04

2010 Jun 30  | 01:59
2010 Jun 30  | 11:54
2010 Jun 30  | 21:50
    • Fireball in Jupiter's Atmosphere - 03 June 2010

      Images by Anthony Wesley and Christopher Go show a large fireball in Jupiter's atmosphere as a bolide entered Jupiter's atmosphere at approximately 20:31:29 UTC on 03 June 2010. Rests of the impactor can be searched in the atmosphere by obserbing in wavelengths sensitive to the upper atmosphere: 890 nm (methane band filters) and in the ultraviolet. There was no observable cloud of debris in wavelengths the night of the impact but it might be possible to find it in 890 nm and ultraviolet light. The impactor site (Longitude: 160º System III, Planetographic latitude=-16.5º) did not show any debris mark in later images by different observers.
    • Oval BA possible merger with WO (24 May 2010)
      Images by Christopher Go from Philippines show the large oval BA close to an adjacent WO. An inminent collision between both ovals seem probable since the cyclonic spot that was between both ovals preventing them from a close in interation has dissappeared on the last observations. Observations in the visible range but also in the 890 nm methane absorption band and/or UV (both sensitive to the atmospheric higher layers) will be very useful to understand the interaction of large vortices on Jupiter at different atmospheric heights.
    • Changes in Jupiter's Belts: SEB Fade (Updated May 2010)
      The South Equatorial Belt (SEB) has entered into a fade state with white clouds in the belt indistinguishable from the adjacent zones. The SEB has faded while Jupiter was in conjunction. The new appearance of the SEB has only been observed after mid April 2010. At the same time the North Equatorial Belt has grown in latitude to northern latitudes. Changes in the SEB happen cyclically. The SEB can remain in its fade state for 1-3 years but generally regains its Belt appearance after the onset of a disturbance. The last time this cycle was observed was in 1993 and the possibilities of studying this one in detail are much better now with CCDs available to ground-based observers.

      We encourage a continuing survey of these changes in Jupiter belt. The new observations will help to understand one of the most remarkable time variable phenomena in Jovian meteorology.

      Technical References:
      Sanchez Lavega et al., The South Equatorial Belt of Jupiter, I : Its life cycle, Icarus, 121, 1-17 (1996).
      Sanchez Lavega et al., The South Equatorial Belt of Jupiter, II: The onset and development of the 1993 disturbance, Icarus, 121, 18-29 (1996).
    • Stormy season on Saturn (Updated May 2010)
      The storm alley in Saturn's tropical south latitudes is showing an outburst of storm activity. Images from different observers show an active storm system from early march and active at least till May 15th. A selection of images and ephemeris for the observation of this storm have been compiled by Marc Delcroix from the Societé Astronomique Française. Images obtained by the Cassini spacecraft show lightning activity in this storm and electrostatic discharges associated with the lightning.
    • BDIP: Historical database of planet images online again (Updated March 2010)
      The historical database of planet images hosted at the Observatoire de Paris-Meudon is accesible online. This is a database of approximately 8400 photographs of Mars, Venus, Mercury, Jupiter and Saturn, acquired between 1890 and 1977, and kept at LESIA in the Observatoire de Paris-Meudon. Follow this link to BDIP (Base de Donneéss d'Images Planétaires)


PAST NEWS
    • IMPACT IN JUPITER (19th July 2009) 
      Images obtained by Anthony Wesley from Australia showed a new dark spot in Jupiter’s 
South Polar Region whose morphology differed from “normal features” in Jupiter, 
strongly suggesting that it was caused by a cometary or asteroidal impact. 
This was soon confirmed by other observations from telescopes all around the world. 

The dark spot was originally located at 303º ± 3º longitude in System III and latitude -56º ±1.2º. 
The dark spot had initially a longitudinal size of 5º and a meridional size of about 2.2º. 
The impact site seemed similar to the intermiate size impacts during the SL9. The impact debris evolved 
in Jupiter's atmosphere dispersed by the winds during July, August and September and was tracked 
in visible light by amateurs around the world and in the near infrared on that period and later months.
Currently (May 2010) there have been different studies of the impact in press in scientific research journals.
    • IOPW images in a paper in the cover of the Nature issue of January 24, 2008. 
      The mistery of Jupiter jets begins to unveil.  Click here for more info.
    • IOPW - Giant Planet Atmospheres. Annual Meeting 2007. 
      The next meeting will take place during the Division for Planetary 
Sciences meeting in Orlando (USA) (http://physics.ucf.edu/DPS07/)
on Monday October 8, from 6 PM to 8 PM, at Rosen Centre (Salon 13).
    • IOPW Atmospheres Meeting at 36th DPS agenda as a document or as ASCII text

    • New user interface called PVOL for the IOPW images 
      Because of the new IOPW interface/tool requirements, we will need that all 
submitted images adhere to some convention:
  1 - If possible, only 1 image (jpg, gif, png) in each file.
  2 - The filename must follow some rule to be processed quickly.
      We largely prefer that you use the one that we propose at
      PVOL >> Required Formats  (see the menu in the PVOL page).
  3 - Each contributor will be accepted by our site and assigned a two or
      three letter ID that will be used to identify his/her images. In
      addition, it will be possible to add/edit the own images comments.
  4 - To get a qualified ID, please register in our system. Contributors
      from previous apparitions are already registered and do not have to
      do it again (check your code at PVOL >> Users >> Contributors).
Failing to fulfill these requirements involves the manual processing of
the files, and that increases remarkably the time needed to make available
the image at the IOPW site.

In a near future it will be possible for the contributors to upload their 
images directly.

Older IOPW pages will be keeped but not updated. You must use PVOL instead.
    • IJW operations transferred from New Mexico State University to the Universidad del Pais Vasco 
      Starting on November 3th 2004, the Jupiter images repository of the IJW is held 
in the hosts of the Universidad del Pais Vasco, as all the other planets images.

Submission of images by contributors must be addressed to the IOPW-atmospheres 
e-mail address (iopw@lg.ehu.es).

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