[ExI] the vortices of Jupiter

[Amara Graps]

I don't know if it is that amazing. An 8 in telescope can do a good job
to display the cloud bands and even some variation within the bands. I
don't see why a larger telescope 80 years ago could not have resolved
some of the bands into eddies and smaller storms. Here, for example is a
2.6 meter telescope image of Jupiter from the Nordic Optical Telescope,
located at La Palma Canary Islands):
http://www.solarviews.com/cap/jup/jupiter3.htm  Eddies are clearly
visible. Even in this brief overview of Jupiter:
http://www.solarviews.com/eng/jupiter.htm  there is a description of the
white oval cloud systems that formed in the 1930s, so the telescopes
were resolving the white ovals back then. What Voyager contributed was
an extremely high resolution (about 150 km) to the eddies and storms.

I'm guessing that you are not finding Jupiter images from 80 years ago
is more due to the fact that those old images are not digitized and
online, than due to the fact that they don't exist. One check might be
to find 80 year old scientific papers about Jupiter's storms, eddies,
'white storms (ovals)' and details of the atmosphere that describe
changes over fraction of days. I.e. where these old weather patterns
are described in words instead of images.

Amara


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Amara Graps, PhD      www.amara.com
Research Scientist, Southwest Research Institute (SwRI), Boulder, Colorado