A possible water ice cloud in Jupiter's stratosphere

López-Puertas, M.; Montañés-Rodríguez, M. P.; González-Merino, B.; Pallé, E.; García-Melendo, E.; Höpfner, M.; García-Comas, M.; Funke, B.
Bibliographical reference

European Planetary Science Congress 2015, held 27 September - 2 October, 2015 in Nantes, France, Online at http://meetingorganizer.copernicus.org/EPSC2015, id.EPSC2015-323

Advertised on:
10
2015
Number of authors
8
IAC number of authors
3
Citations
0
Refereed citations
0
Description
Jupiter's atmosphere has been sounded in transmission from UV to IR, as if it were a transiting exoplanet by observing one of its satellites, Ganymede, while passing through Jupiter's shadow during a solar eclipse from Ganymede. The spectra show strong extinction due to the presence of aerosols and haze in the atmosphere and strong absorption features from CH4.In addition, the spectra show two broad features near 1.5 and 2.0μm that we tentatively attribute to a layer of H2O ice in Jupiter's stratosphere. While the spectral signatures seem to be unequivocally attributed to crystalline water ice, to explain the strong absorption features requires a large amount of water ice.