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[Paulie pchris00]

According to Spaceweather.com today:

JUPITER'S MISSING STRIPE, RETURNING? Earlier this year when Jupiter's great South Equatorial Belt (SEB) vanished, researchers urged amateur astronomers to be alert for its eventual return. The SEB had come and gone before, they noted, and the revival was something to behold. Alert: It might be happening now. After months of quiet in Jupiter's south equatorial zone, a white plume is surging through the cloudtops where the SEB should be. Christopher Go of the Philippines took this picture on Nov. 9th:

spaceweather.com/swpod2010/10nov10/revivalspot_09nov10.jpg?PHPSESSID=ls8bkh4nauqlqj6msbhuv7g3r7

It might not look like much, but this is how a revival of the SEB begins--a small disturbance in the upper atmosphere heralds a much larger profusion of spots and swirls bursting forth around the whole circumference of the giant planet. Amid the confusion, Jupiter's vast brown stripe emerges.

Subsequent observations by astronomers in the United States, Japan, and the Philippines not only confirm the plume, but also show it brightening rapidly. Indeed, as Nov. 11th unfolds, it is the single brightest spot on Jupiter in wavebands ranging from infrared to ultraviolet.

"This plume is so energetic that we can confidently expect it to develop into the SEB Revival," says John Rogers, director of the Jupiter section of the British Astronomical Association. "The SEB Revival is usually spectacular, so we can expect impressive and rapidly changing disturbances over the next 3 months."

Experienced planetary photographers are encouraged to monitor developments. If events proceed apace, the Revival could become visible to novices using small backyard telescopes, so stay tuned.

spaceweather.com/


Let's keep an eye on the Jovian sky, and see what develops.


And from Emily Lakdawalla of the Planetary Society:

planetary.org/blog/article/00002772/

[patrickm]

That would be cool. Now if we could only see Jupiter!

[Paulie pchris00]

Nov 11, 2010 19:27:55 GMT -6 patrickm said:

That would be cool. Now if we could only see Jupiter!

Indeed! And more images compiled by Emily Lakdawalla:

www.planetary.org/blog/article/00002784/

It's definitely looking like a revival.

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

All of the planets are experiencing heating-up phenomenon, as reflected most on Jupiter.

Global warming is cyclical and will happen again.

I remember Chicago Astronomer Bill and I set up in a large lot near Chinatown...and he had his 10" Water tank dob at the time.
in around 2007.

I noticed "something" funny about Jupiter...and noticed that the SEB was gone! "No way", I thought, but confirmation from Bill showed that it was gone.

Two days later, I read on the Astronomy site that reports were coming in on what I observed.

Cool.

[patrickm]

MSNBC Cosmic Log: The turmoil in Jupiter's belt

3 different shots show Jupiter's missing equatorial beltp.

To gain a better understanding of the dynamics behind the disappearance and re-emergence of the belt, scientists created the image above, which shows how the gas giant looks in thermal infrared light, at a wavelength of nearly 5 microns. The thermal IR imagery is shown in bright red and yellow, overlaid on a composite of three shorter near-infrared bands.

The thermal readings reveal how heat from Jupiter's interior is being radiated into space. The three other IR bands, in contrast, capture reflected sunlight. Put them all together and compare them to visible-light images, and scientists get a picture of the thinning, breaking layer of high, bright icy clouds that obscured the belt.

Jupiter seen in three bands of infrared (left), with an overly of 5-micron thermal infrared (center) and on the same night in visible light (small inset at right).

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