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Written by: NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION

Published: 30 October 2021

New findings from NASA’s Juno probe orbiting Jupiter provide a fuller picture of how the planet’s distinctive and colorful atmospheric features offer clues about the unseen processes below its clouds.

The results highlight the inner workings of the belts and zones of clouds encircling Jupiter, as well as its polar cyclones and even the Great Red Spot.

Researchers published several papers on Juno’s atmospheric discoveries today in the journal Science and the Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets. Additional papers appeared in two recent issues of Geophysical Research Letters.

“These new observations from Juno open up a treasure chest of new information about Jupiter’s enigmatic observable features,” said Lori Glaze, director of NASA’s Planetary Science Division at the agency’s headquarters in Washington. “Each paper sheds light on different aspects of the planet’s atmospheric processes — a wonderful example of how our internationally-diverse science teams strengthen understanding of our solar system.”

Juno entered Jupiter’s orbit in 2016. During each of the spacecraft’s 37 passes of the planet to date, a specialized suite of instruments has peered below its turbulent cloud deck.

“Previously, Juno surprised us with hints that phenomena in Jupiter’s atmosphere went deeper than expected,” said Scott Bolton, principal investigator of Juno from the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio and lead author of the Journal Science paper on the depth of Jupiter’s vortices. “Now, we’re starting to put all these individual pieces together and getting our first real understanding of how Jupiter’s beautiful and violent atmosphere works — in 3D.”

Juno’s microwave radiometer (MWR) allows mission scientists to peer beneath Jupiter’s cloud tops and probe the structure of its numerous vortex storms. The most famous of these storms is the iconic anticyclone known as the Great Red Spot. Wider than Earth, this crimson vortex has intrigued scientists since its discovery almost two centuries ago.

The new results show that the cyclones are warmer on top, with lower atmospheric densities, while they are colder at the bottom, with higher densities. Anticyclones, which rotate in the opposite direction, are colder at the top but warmer at the bottom.

The findings also indicate these storms are far taller than expected, with some extending 60 miles below the cloud tops and others, including the Great Red Spot, extending over 200 miles. This surprise discovery demonstrates that the vortices cover regions beyond those where water condenses and clouds form, below the depth where sunlight warms the atmosphere.

The height and size of the Great Red Spot means the concentration of atmospheric mass within the storm potentially could be detectable by instruments studying Jupiter’s gravity field. Two close Juno flybys over Jupiter’s most famous spot provided the opportunity to search for the storm’s gravity signature and complement the MWR results on its depth.

With Juno traveling low over Jupiter’s cloud deck at about 130,000 mph Juno scientists were able to measure velocity changes as small 0.01 millimeter per second using a NASA’s Deep Space Network tracking antenna, from a distance of more than 400 million miles. This enabled the team to constrain the depth of the Great Red Spot to about 300 miles below the cloud tops.

“The precision required to get the Great Red Spot’s gravity during the July 2019 flyby is staggering,” said Marzia Parisi, a Juno scientist from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California and lead author of a paper in the Journal Science on gravity overflights of the Great Red Spot. “Being able to complement MWR’s finding on the depth gives us great confidence that future gravity experiments at Jupiter will yield equally intriguing results.”

Belts and zones

In addition to cyclones and anticyclones, Jupiter is known for its distinctive belts and zones – white and reddish bands of clouds that wrap around the planet. Strong east-west winds moving in opposite directions separate the bands.

Juno previously discovered that these winds, or jet streams, reach depths of about 2,000 miles. Researchers are still trying to solve the mystery of how the jet streams form. Data collected by Juno’s MWR during multiple passes reveal one possible clue: that the atmosphere’s ammonia gas travels up and down in remarkable alignment with the observed jet streams.

“By following the ammonia, we found circulation cells in both the north and south hemispheres that are similar in nature to ‘Ferrel cells,’ which control much of our climate here on Earth”, said Keren Duer, a graduate student from the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel and lead author of the Journal Science paper on Ferrel-like cells on Jupiter. “While Earth has one Ferrel cell per hemisphere, Jupiter has eight — each at least 30 times larger.”

Juno’s MWR data also shows that the belts and zones undergo a transition around 40 miles (65 kilometers) beneath Jupiter’s water clouds. At shallow depths, Jupiter’s belts are brighter in microwave light than the neighboring zones. But at deeper levels, below the water clouds, the opposite is true – which reveals a similarity to our oceans.

“We are calling this level the ‘Jovicline’ in analogy to a transitional layer seen in Earth’s oceans, known as the thermocline – where seawater transitions sharply from being relative warm to relative cold,” said Leigh Fletcher, a Juno participating scientist from the University of Leicester in the United Kingdom and lead author of the paper in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets highlighting Juno’s microwave observations of Jupiter's temperate belts and zones.

Polar cyclones

Juno previously discovered polygonal arrangements of giant cyclonic storms at both of Jupiter’s poles — eight arranged in an octagonal pattern in the north and five arranged in a pentagonal pattern in the south. Now, five years later, mission scientists using observations by the spacecraft’s Jovian Infrared Auroral Mapper, or JIRAM, have determined these atmospheric phenomena are extremely resilient, remaining in the same location.

“Jupiter’s cyclones affect each other’s motion, causing them to oscillate about an equilibrium position,” said Alessandro Mura, a Juno co-investigator at the National Institute for Astrophysics in Rome and lead author of a recent paper in Geophysical Research Letters on oscillations and stability in Jupiter’s polar cyclones. “The behavior of these slow oscillations suggests that they have deep roots.”

JIRAM data also indicates that, like hurricanes on Earth, these cyclones want to move poleward, but cyclones located at the center of each pole push them back. This balance explains where the cyclones reside and the different numbers at each pole.

Follow the mission on Facebook and Twitter, and get more information about Juno online at https://www.nasa.gov/juno.

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Written by: Elizabeth Larson

Published: 29 October 2021

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — This week the Board of Supervisors took action to approve an agreement that will finalize the exchange of a county-owned property in Clearlake for the Lakeport Armory, which will be used as a new headquarters for the sheriff’s office.

Work on the land swap has been in the process for a few years now.

County Deputy Administrative Officer Susan Parker reported that in January 2019, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed an executive order directing the Department of General Services to collaborate with the Department of Housing and Community Development and the California Housing Finance Agency to identify and prioritize excess state-owned property to address the state’s affordable housing shortage.

The Lakeport Armory property, located at 1431 Hoyt Ave. in Lakeport next to the Lake County Jail, was identified as excess state-owned property as the result of that process.

Last year, the county, the city of Clearlake, State Sen. Mike McGuire and state agencies began discussing the possibility of swapping the armory for a vacant, 15.5-acre county-owned property at 15837 18th Ave.

The result was a proposal to move forward with the county and state exchanging the properties.

In January, the Board of Supervisors voted to direct county staff to finalize the plan.

Later that month, the planning commissions for both the city of Clearlake and the county took actions that found the proposal to be in conformance with their respective general plans.

In March, the Board of Supervisors adopted a resolution declaring its intent to exchange the county property with the state.

The state also has entered into an exclusive negotiating agreement with Chelsea Investment Corp. to build a 100-unit affordable housing project on the property, county officials reported.

The Carlsbad-based company reported that it has developed more than 100 affordable communities, providing housing for special needs, senior and rural populations, along with mixed-use development, at a cost of more than $2 billion.

The property on 18th Avenue had, at one time, been the site where local officials had hoped to build veterans housing.

It’s centrally located in the city, near Clearlake’s largest shopping center, Adventist Health Clear Lake Hospital and Woodland Community College’s Clear Lake Campus. A new transit hub that will cover a service area from the Bay Area to Shasta County also is slated to be built nearby.

On Tuesday, the board approved an agreement that allows the county and state to convey the properties to each other.

Sheriff Brian Martin was on hand to offer his support. “I think the general public thinks that these things are simple,” Martin said.

He added, “It’s anything but simple,” and said many hardworking people at the county and state levels were part of bringing the agreement together.

Martin said it’s a win-win, allowing the sheriff’s office to move from its current location — at 1220 Martin St. — into a more suitable location while opening up additional office space for the county.

“There’s really no downside to this,” Martin said.

County Administrative Officer Carol Huchingson said that if the board approved the agreement on Tuesday, it would allow the developer to pursue funding that had a Nov. 1 application deadline.

Board Chair Bruno Sabatier said there had been four qualified and interested developers in the process.

He said the 100-unit development will have an amazing impact on the city’s housing needs — noting other projects also are in process — and also will address the county’s office space issues.

There was no public comment before Supervisor Tina Scott moved to approve the agreement. Supervisor Jessica Pyska seconded and the board approved the agreement unanimously.

Sheriff Martin told Lake County News in a previous interview that the process of moving into the armory will take a few years as it’s a “significant project” that will require improvements. He said the county was looking at funding sources to make the renovations.

The armory has many amenities the Martin Street location doesn’t have, including a commercial kitchen, a vault and storage.

Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.

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Written by: LAKE COUNTY NEWS REPORTS

Published: 29 October 2021

CLEARLAKE, Calif. — Hope Rising’s cradle to career initiative, Smart Start | Bright Future has launched Lake County’s first-ever partner-driven After-School Hub.

“That is what the Smart Start | Bright Future initiative is all about. It is about collaboration, partnership and lifting each other up as a community,” said Faith Hornby, Hope Rising executive director.

The After-School Hub officially launched on Oct. 11 at the Burns Valley Elementary School in the city of Clearlake in the Konocti Unified School District.

The Smart Start After-School Hub is designed to provide in-depth, enriching experiences for Burns Valley K-7th grade students.

“To be engaged in school, the students have to want to come to school, so they need a safe place to go after school to get excited about the next day of learning,” said Becky Salato, Konocti Unified superintendent.

The Smart Start After-School Hub is just one of the four-pillars that make up the Smart Start | Bright Future initiative.

The Smart Start | Bright Future initiative kicked off in June 2021 with its first two pillars, the Smart Start Eligibility Wizard and Smart Start Navigator.

The Smart Start Eligibility Wizard, created in partnership with First 5 Lake County, helps parents and caregivers identify services and programs their children are eligible to receive.

The Smart Start Navigator is Courtney Parker from the Lake Family Resource Center. She provides education and resources to new mothers with children ages 0-5 and/or pregnant women in Lake County.

This initiative continues to support the youth in Lake County from birth to graduation and beyond.

The next step will be to launch in January the fourth pillar, 10,000 Degrees, is a nationally recognized leader in supporting students from low-income backgrounds to and through college and beyond. This program will be implemented at Lower Lake High School.

This initiative is made possible by the Founders Circle and Hope Rising sponsors. The Founders Circle includes Adventist Health Clearlake, Redwood Credit Union, Senator Mike McGuire’s office and the John Jordan Foundation.

The mission for Hope Rising Lake County is to mobilize and inspire community partnerships and actions that support individual, collective and community health and wellness.