Near-ultraviolet scattering properties of Jupiter
Voyager 2 photometric observations of Jupiter at four phase angles between 20 and 80 deg and at various illumination angles are used to determine the altitude distribution and scattering properties of the material responsible for Jupiter's low geometric albedo at 2400 A. Center-to-limb measurements at midlatitudes indicate that most of the absorbing material lies deeper than 100 mbar, while the latitudinal distribution of stratospheric absorbers suggests that energy deposition from the magnetosphere is important in the formation of the absorbers. Scattering properties of model atmospheres containing three distinct aerosol size distributions are examined, and an upper limit to the column abundance of particles larger than the 0.05 micron radius in the north tropical zone and equatorial belt are derived. Rayleigh scattering fits the variation of intensity with phase angles between 20 and 80 deg better than any of the considered particle phase functions, although the Rayleigh scattering from the top 100 mbar obscures effects due to scattering from deeper absorbing particles.