Volume 47, Issue 15 e2020GL088397
Research Letter

High‐Spatiotemporal Resolution Observations of Jupiter Lightning‐Induced Radio Pulses Associated With Sferics and Thunderstorms

Masafumi Imai

Corresponding Author

Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, USA

Department of Electrical Engineering and Information Science, National Institute of Technology (KOSEN), Niihama College, Niihama, Japan

Correspondence to: M. Imai,

m.imai@niihama.kosen-ac.jp

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Michael H. Wong

SETI Institute, Mountain View, CA, USA

Center for Integrative Planetary Science, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA

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Ivana Kolmašová

Department of Space Physics, Institute of Atmospheric Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague, Czechia

Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, Charles University, Prague, Czechia

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Shannon T. Brown

Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA

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Ondřej Santolík

Department of Space Physics, Institute of Atmospheric Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague, Czechia

Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, Charles University, Prague, Czechia

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William S. Kurth

Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, USA

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George B. Hospodarsky

Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, USA

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Scott J. Bolton

Space Science and Engineering Division, Southwest Research Institute, San Antonio, TX, USA

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Steven M. Levin

Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA

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First published: 17 July 2020
Citations: 1

Abstract

Jupiter lightning discharges produce various kinds of phenomena including radio wave pulses at different frequencies. On 6 April 2019, the Juno Waves instrument captured an extraordinary series of radio pulses at frequencies below 150 kHz on timescales of submilliseconds. Quasi‐simultaneous multi‐instrument data show that the locations of their magnetic footprints are very close to the locations of ultrahigh frequency (UHF) sferics recorded by the Juno MWR instrument. Hubble Space Telescope images show that the signature of active convection includes cloud‐free clearings, in addition to the convective towers and deep water clouds that were also recognized in previous spacecraft observations of lightning source regions. Furthermore, the detections of 17 very low frequency/low‐frequency (VLF/LF) radio pulses suggest a minimum duration of lightning processes on the order of submilliseconds. These observations provide new constraints on the physical properties of Jupiter lightning.

Plain Language Summary

Jupiter lightning illuminates clouds and produces a strong pulse at radio wavelengths. Juno's radio observatory (consisting of two onboard instruments) in a broad radio range made several detections of extraordinary radio pulses on 6 April 2019. The high‐temporal observations of such radio pulses detected below 150 kHz indicate variations of the lightning related processes on the order of submilliseconds. Observations of these radio pulses and direct lightning‐induced radio emissions at 600 MHz come from the same area, very close to deep water clouds detected by the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) in the Jovian atmosphere. The coordinated Juno‐HST lightning observations provide a new way of understanding the lightning processes and lightning source regions associated with the cloud features at Jupiter.

Data Availability Statement

The data used in this study are publicly accessible via the Planetary Data System (https://pds.nasa.gov) for Juno Waves and MWR instruments and the Wide Field Coverage for Juno program (https://doi.org/10.17909/T94T1H) for the Hubble Space Telescope. The processed data for each figure can be found through Zenodo (https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3930085)