A planetary-scale heat wave in Jupiter's mid-latitude upper atmosphere

At Jupiter, magnetosphere-ionosphere coupling gives rise to intense auroral emissions and enormous energy deposition in the magnetic polar regions. Here we show ground-based maps of Jupiter's upper atmosphere temperatures obtained via the emissions of the major upper-atmospheric ion, H₃⁺. The maps have a spatial resolution of 2^o longitude and latitude from pole to equator and trace the global temperature gradient. We find that temperatures decrease steadily from the auroral polar regions to the equator, indicating that the aurora act as a planet-wide heating source. However, during a period of enhanced activity in the auroral region which models imply was due to a solar wind compression, a high-temperature planetary-scale-sized structure was also observed on top of this gradient. This presentation reports on the particulars of this feature, including how it appears to be propagating away from the main auroral oval (as determined by estimates of the features' velocity at several longitudes) and its subsequent implications for global energy circulation at Jupiter and other planets.