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S. Vicente, M. Roos-Serote (Lisbon Astron. Obs., Portugal), P. Drossart (Obs. of Paris-Meudon, France), L. Kamp, R.W. Carlson (JPL)
After 5 years and some 30 orbits around Jupiter, Galileo's instruments have gathered a huge amount of observations from the planet. Data from the Near Infrared Mapping Spectrometer have already lead to some new results concerning the atmosphere of Jupiter, for example the dryness of hot spots was confirmed, and combining SSI and NIMS data the presence of a localised water cloud could be shown.
NIMS 5 micron spectra allow the determination of the abundance of water vapor in the jovian troposphere, as well as the opacity of the overlying cloud deck. Water vapor is a trace species, and its spatial distribution is therefore influenced by the dynamics of the atmosphere. From NIMS observations the spatial variation of water vapor and cloud opacity can be studied.
The author(s) of this abstract have provided an email address for comments about the abstract: svicente@oal.ul.pt