Studies of Jovian Atmospheric Structure and Coloring Agents using Hyperspectral Imaging

Paul Strycker

This project will contribute to the understanding of Jupiter's atmosphere by examining the vertical cloud structure and correlating it with the following: (1) atmospheric features on a wide range spatial scales, (2) the wavelength dependence of the single-scattering albedo in the visible and near-infrared continuum, and (3) the distribution of coloring agents (chromophores). This will be accomplished through an analysis of observations of Jupiter taken with the Hubble Space Telescope and the New Mexico State University Acousto-optic Imaging Camera (NAIC) at Apache Point Observatory (APO). The observations will be modeled with a radiative transfer code to retrieve atmospheric parameters, and characteristics of the chromophores will be derived from multivariate and spectral analyses.