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Wong, Michael H.

Publications and source records attributed to Wong, Michael H..

11 records
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2021

Evolution of the Horizontal Winds in Jupiter's Great Red Spot From One Jovian Year of HST/WFC3 Maps

We measured the horizontal winds in Jupiter's Great Red Spot (GRS) using data from the WFC3/UVIS instrument on board the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). The data cover 11 epochs from 2009 to 2020. Long-term monotonic trends in size and shape previously noted from the visible cloud appearance are paralleled by changes in the high-speed ring around the vortex. The circularization of the GRS cannot be explained by changes in the horizontal wind shear of the surrounding environment. The velocity fields suggest no long-term trend in the static stability inside or outside the vortex. Instead, the changes are accompanied by a 4%–8% increase in the mean wind speeds of the high-speed ring from 2009 to 2020. Changes in the wind field coincided with the South Equatorial Belt Outbreak storms of 2016–2017, but not with 2019 "flaking" events involving detachment of red material from the main oval.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
NASA NTRS2019

Lifetimes and Occurrence Rates of Dark Vortices on Neptune from 25 Years of Hubble Space Telescope Images

We scoured the full set of blue-wavelength Hubble Space Telescope images of Neptune, finding one additional dark spot in new Hubble data beyond those discovered in 1989, 1994, 1996, and 2015. We report the complete disappearance of the SDS-2015 dark spot, using new Hubble data taken on 2018 September 9–10, as part of the Outer Planet Atmospheres Legacy (OPAL) program. Overall, dark spots in the full Hubble data set have lifetimes of at least one to two years, and no more than six years. We modeled a set of dark spots randomly distributed in time over the latitude range on Neptune that is visible from Earth, finding that the cadence of archival Hubble images would have detected about 70% of these spots if their lifetimes are only one year, or about 85%–95% of simulated spots with lifetimes of two or more years. Based on the Hubble data set, we conclude that dark spots have average occurrence rates of one dark spot every four to six years. Many numerical models to date have simulated much shorter vortex lifetimes, so our findings provide constraints that may lead to improved understanding of Neptune’s wind field, stratification, and humidity.

Hsu, Andrew I.↗
NASA NTRS2018

Historical and Contemporary Trends in the Size, Drift, and Color of Jupiter's Great Red Spot

Observations of Jupiter's Great Red Spot (GRS) span more than 150 years. This allows for careful measurements of its size and drift rate. High spatial resolution spacecraft data also allow tracking of its spectral characteristics and internal dynamics and structure. The GRS continues to shrink in longitudinal length at an approximately linear rate of 0 deg .194 yr(exp −1) and in latitudinal width at 0 deg .048 yr (exp −1). Its westward drift rate (relative to System III W. longitude) has increased from approx. 0 deg .26/day in the 1980s to approx. 0 deg .36/day currently. Since 2014, the GRS's short wavelength (less than 650 nm) reflectance has continued to decrease, while it has become brighter at 890 nm, indicating a change in clouds/haze at high altitudes. In addition, its north–south color asymmetry has decreased, and the dark core has become smaller. Internal velocities have increased on its east and west edges, and decreased on the north and south, resulting in decreased relative vorticity and circulation. The GRS's color changes from 2014 to 2017 may be explained by changes in stretching vorticity or divergence acting to balance the decrease in relative vorticity.

Simon, Amy A.↗
NASA NTRS2017

Changes in Jupiter's Zonal Wind Profile Preceding and During the Juno Mission

We present five epochs of WFC3 HST Jupiter observations taken between 2009-2016 and extract global zonal wind profiles for each epoch. Jupiter's zonal wind field is globally stable throughout these years, but significant variations in certain latitude regions persist. We find that the largest uncertainties in the wind field are due to vortices or hot-spots, and show residual maps which identify the strongest vortex flows. The strongest year-to-year variation in the zonal wind profiles is the 24 deg N jet peak. Numerous plume outbreaks have been observed in the Northern Temperate Belt and are associated with decreases in the zonal velocity and brightness. We show that the 24 deg N jet peak velocity and brightness decreased in 2012 and again in late 2016, following outbreaks during these years. Our February 2016 zonal wind profile was the last highly spatially resolved measurement prior to Juno s first science observations. The final 2016 data were taken in conjunction with Juno's perijove 3 pass on 11 December 2016, and show the zonal wind profile following the plume outbreak at 24 deg N in October 2016.

Jupiter↗
NASA NTRS2017

HST WFC3 Observations of Uranus' 2014 Storm Clouds and Comparison with VLT/SINFONI and IRTF/Spex Observations

In November 2014 Uranus was observed with the Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) instrument of the Hubble Space Telescope as part of the Hubble 2020: Outer Planet Atmospheres Legacy program, OPAL. OPAL annually maps Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune (and will also map Saturn from 2018) in several visible near- infrared wavelength filters. The Uranus 2014 OPAL observations were made on the 89th November at a time when a huge cloud complex, first observed by de Pater et al. (2015) and subsequently tracked by professional and amateur astronomers (Sayanagi et al., 2016), was present at 30-40deg N. We imaged the entire visible atmosphere, including the storm system, in seven filters spanning 467924 nm, capturing variations in the coloration of Uranus clouds and also vertical distribution due to wavelength dependent changes in Rayleigh scattering and methane absorption optical depth. Here we analyse these new HST observations with the NEMESIS radiative-transfer and retrieval code in multiple-scattering mode to determine the vertical cloud structure in and around the storm cloud system. The same storm system was also observed in the H-band (1.4-1.8 micrometers) with the SINFONI Integral Field Unit Spectrometer on the Very Large Telescope (VLT) on 31st October and 11th November, reported by Irwin et al. (2016, 10.1016j.icarus.2015.09.010). To constrain better the cloud particle sizes and scattering properties over a wide wavelength range we also conducted a limb-darkening analysis of the background cloud structure in the 30-40deg N latitude band by simultaneously fitting: a) these HSTOPAL observations at a range of zenith angles; b) the VLTSINFONI observations at a range of zenith angles; and c) IRTFSpeX observations of this latitude band made in 2009 at a single zenith angle of 23deg, spanning the wavelength range 0.8-1.8 micrometers (Irwin et al., 2015, 10.1016j.icarus.2014.12.020). We find that the HST observations, and the combined HSTVLTIRTF observations at all locations are well modelled with a three-component cloud comprised of: 1) a vertically thin, but optically thick deep tropospheric cloud at a pressure of approximately 2 bars; 2) a methane-ice cloud based at the methane-condensation level of approximately 1.23 bar, with variable vertical extent; and 3) a vertically extended tropospheric haze, also based at the methane-condensation level of 1.23 bar. We find that modelling both haze and tropospheric cloud with particles having an effective radius of approximately 0.1 micron provides a good fit the observations, although for the tropospheric cloud, particles with an effective radius as large as 1.0 micron provide a similarly good fit. We find that the particles in both the tropospheric cloud and haze are more scattering at short wave- lengths, giving them a blue color, but are more absorbing at longer wavelengths, especially for the tropospheric haze. We find that the spectra of the storm clouds are well modelled by localized thickening and vertical extension of the methane-ice cloud. For the particles in the storm clouds, which we assume to be composed of methane ice particles, we find that their mean radii must lie somewhere in the range 0. 1 1. 0 m. We find that the high clouds have low integrated opacity, and that streamers reminiscent of convective thunderstorm anvils are confined to levels deeper than 1 bar. These results argue against vigorous moist convective origins for the cloud features.

atmospheres↗
NASA NTRS2017

Initial SAM Calibration Gas Experiments on Mars: Quadrupole Mass Spectrometer Results and Implications

The Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instrument suite of the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) Curiosity rover is equipped to analyze both martian atmospheric gases and volatiles released by pyrolysis of solid surface materials, with target measurements including chemical and isotopic composition (Mahaffy et al., 2012). To facilitate assessment of instrument performance and validation of results obtained on Mars, SAM houses a calibration cell containing CO2, Ar, N2, Xe, and several fluorinated hydrocarbon compounds (Franz et al., 2014; Mahaffy et al., 2012). This report describes the first two experiments utilizing this calibration cell on Mars and gives results from analysis of data acquired with the SAM Quadrupole Mass Spectrometer (QMS). These data support the accuracy of isotope ratios obtained with the QMS (Conrad et al., 2016; Mahaffy et al., 2013) and provide ground-truth for reassessment of analytical constants required for atmospheric measurements, which were reported in previous contributions (Franz et al., 2015, 2014). The most significant implication of the QMS data involves reinterpretation of pre-launch contamination previously believed to affect only CO abundance measurements (Franz et al., 2015) to affect N2 abundances, as well. The corresponding adjustment to the N2 calibration constant presented here brings the atmospheric volume mixing ratios for Ar and N2 retrieved by SAM into closer agreement with those reported by the Viking mission (Owen et al., 1977; Oyama and Berdahl, 1977).

Sample Analysis at Mars Investigation↗
NASA NTRS2016

Spitzer Space Telescope Mid-IR Light Curves of Neptune

We have used the Spitzer Space Telescope in 2016 February to obtain high cadence, high signal-to-noise, 17 hr duration light curves of Neptune at 3.6 and 4.5 microns. The light curve duration was chosen to correspond to the rotation period of Neptune. Both light curves are slowly varying with time, with full amplitudes of 1.1 mag at 3.6 microns and 0.6 mag at 4.5 microns. We have also extracted sparsely sampled 18 hr light curves of Neptune at W1 (3.4 microns) and W2 (4.6 microns) from the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE)/NEOWISE archive at six epochs in 2010-2015. These light curves all show similar shapes and amplitudes compared to the Spitzer light curves but with considerable variation from epoch to epoch. These amplitudes are much larger than those observed with Kepler/K2 in the visible (amplitude approximately 0.02 mag) or at 845 nm with the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) in 2015 and at 763 nm in 2016 (amplitude approximately 0.2 mag). We interpret the Spitzer and WISE light curves as arising entirely from reflected solar photons, from higher levels in Neptune's atmosphere than for K2. Methane gas is the dominant opacity source in Neptune's atmosphere, and methane absorption bands are present in the HST 763 and 845 nm, WISE W1, and Spitzer 3.6 micron filters.

Individual (Neptune)↗
NASA NTRS2015

Neptune’s Dynamic Atmosphere from Kepler K2 Observations: Implications for Brown Dwarf Light Curve Analyses

Observations of Neptune with the Kepler Space Telescope yield a 49-day light curve with 98% coverage at a 1-minute cadence. A significant signature in the light curve comes from discrete cloud features. We compare results extracted from the light curve data with contemporaneous disk-resolved imaging of Neptune from the Keck 10-meter and Hubble Space Telescope. The direct comparison validates the zonal wind profile and cloud feature variability information extracted from the light curve. Neptune’s clouds vary in location and intensity on short and long time scales, with large discrete storms dominating the light curves; smaller or fainter clouds contribute to its variability. This has implications for the interpretation of information extracted from light curves of directly imaged exoplanets and cloudy brown dwarfs.

Simon, Amy A.↗
NASA NTRS2015

Dramatic Change in Jupiter's Great Red Spot from Spacecraft Observations

Jupiter's Great Red Spot (GRS) is one of its most distinct and enduring features. Since the advent of modern telescopes, keen observers have noted its appearance and documented a change in shape from very oblong to oval, confirmed in measurements from spacecraft data. It currently spans the smallest latitude and longitude size ever recorded. Here we show that this change has been accompanied by an increase in cloud/haze reflectance as sensed in methane gas absorption bands, increased absorption at wavelengths shorter than 500 nanometers, and increased spectral slope between 500 and 630 nanometers. These changes occurred between 2012 and 2014, without a significant change in internal tangential wind speeds; the decreased size results in a 3.2 day horizontal cloud circulation period, shorter than previously observed. As the GRS has narrowed in latitude, it interacts less with the jets flanking its north and south edges, perhaps allowing for less cloud mixing and longer UV irradiation of cloud and aerosol particles. Given its long life and observational record, we expect that future modeling of the GRS's changes, in concert with laboratory flow experiments, will drive our understanding of vortex evolution and stability in a confined flow field crucial for comparison with other planetary atmospheres.

planets and satellites: atmospheres aEuro" planets↗
NASA NTRS2014

Analytical Techniques for Retrieval of Atmospheric Composition with the Quadrupole Mass Spectrometer of the Sample Analysis at Mars Instrument Suite on Mars Science Laboratory

The Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instrument suite is the largest scientific payload on the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) Curiosity rover, which landed in Mars׳ Gale Crater in August 2012. As a miniature geochemical laboratory, SAM is well-equipped to address multiple aspects of MSL׳s primary science goal, characterizing the potential past or present habitability of Gale Crater. Atmospheric measurements support this goal through compositional investigations relevant to martian climate evolution. SAM instruments include a quadrupole mass spectrometer, a tunable laser spectrometer, and a gas chromatograph that are used to analyze martian atmospheric gases as well as volatiles released by pyrolysis of solid surface materials (Mahaffy et al., 2012). This report presents analytical methods for retrieving the chemical and isotopic composition of Mars׳ atmosphere from measurements obtained with SAM׳s quadrupole mass spectrometer. It provides empirical calibration constants for computing volume mixing ratios of the most abundant atmospheric species and analytical functions to correct for instrument artifacts and to characterize measurement uncertainties. Finally, we discuss differences in volume mixing ratios of the martian atmosphere as determined by SAM (Mahaffy et al., 2013) and Viking (Owen et al., 1977, Oyama and Berdahl, 1977) from an analytical perspective. Although the focus of this paper is atmospheric observations, much of the material concerning corrections for instrumental effects also applies to reduction of data acquired with SAM from analysis of solid samples.

quadropole mass spectometer↗