# First ALMA Millimeter Wavelength Maps of Jupiter, with a Multi-Wavelength Study of Convection

## TL;DR

This study presents the first ALMA millimeter wavelength maps of Jupiter, revealing that erupting plumes bring ammonia from deep within the atmosphere, linking deep convection processes with observable atmospheric phenomena.

## Contribution

It provides the first direct evidence from ALMA that Jovian plumes transport ammonia from deep layers, supporting moist convection models and connecting multi-wavelength observations.

## Key findings

- Erupting plumes bring ammonia from deep atmosphere to higher altitudes.
- Plumes reach the tropopause, as shown by HST data.
- Deep atmospheric ammonia is linked to surface eruptions.

## Abstract

We obtained the first maps of Jupiter at 1-3 mm wavelength with the Atacama Large Millimeter/Submillimeter Array (ALMA) on 3-5 January 2017, just days after an energetic eruption at 16.5S jovigraphic latitude had been reported by the amateur community, and about 2-3 months after the detection of similarly energetic eruptions in the northern hemisphere, at 22.2-23.0N. Our observations, probing below the ammonia cloud deck, show that the erupting plumes in the SEB bring up ammonia gas from the deep atmosphere. While models of plume eruptions that are triggered at the water condensation level explain data taken at uv-visible and mid-infrared wavelengths, our ALMA observations provide a crucial, hitherto missing, link in the moist convection theory by showing that ammonia gas from the deep atmosphere is indeed brought up in these plumes. Contemporaneous HST data show that the plumes reach altitudes as high as the tropopause. We suggest that the plumes at 22.2-23.0N also rise up well above the ammonia cloud deck, and that descending air may dry the neighboring belts even more than in quiescent times, which would explain our observations in the north.