Structure of the visible Jovian clouds

Abstract

A study of the hydrogen quadrupole line intensities at the center of the planetary disk was conducted during the 1972 apparition of Jupiter. The study involved the observation of the S(1) lines of the H2 (3-0) and (4-0) quadrupole bands. The observations show that the abundance of hydrogen detected at these frequencies is extremely variable because of rapid changes in the structure of the visible clouds.