Motivation: despite the fact that jupiter has been observed for decades from the ground and in situ by spacecraft, we still do not know its bulk composition nor do we understand its global atmospheric…

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has awarded a $639,462 grant to the University of California, Berkeley to conduct research in support of the Juno spacecraft mission to Jupiter. The grant will fund the use of the Upgraded Very Large Array (VLA) to produce global maps of Jupiter's atmosphere at 1-4 cm wavelengths, which will provide critical context for data collected by Juno's Microwave Radiometer (MWR). The research team will also use Gemini and Keck telescopes to obtain 5-μm observations, including spectroscopic data, to further characterize Jupiter's atmosphere. This research is directly aligned with NASA's goals to explore and understand the solar system, and the findings will also have relevance for the study of exoplanets. The grant does not have a set-aside designation, and the University of California, Berkeley is the prime recipient, with the State of California Controllers Office serving as the parent organization.

Motivation: despite the fact that jupiter has been observed for decades from the ground and in situ by spacecraft, we still do not know its bulk composition nor do we understand its global atmospheric dynamics well. To address these questions, the juno spacecraft's microwave radiometer (MWR) will observe the planet's deep atmosphere between 1.4 and 50 CM in 2016- 2017. At these wavelengths one probes jupiter's atmosphere from the top-most cloud layer at ~ 0.7 bar down to well over ~100 bar. However, IT will be challenging to interpret the observations as MWR's field-of-view is extremely small; global context images would be of utmost value to interpret the data. We recently constructed global radio maps at high spatial resolution from data obtained with the upgraded very large array (VLA) at 1-6 CM. Based upon these results, we request VLA time to construct such maps during several juno perijove passages. Because of the fast-changing appearance of jupiter, global context images should be obtained simultaneously with juno observations. By combining such VLA maps with juno MWR data, we expect to achieve significant advances: in addition to providing context for narrow juno radiometry swaths, the VLA maps trace vertical flows on regional to global scales, while juno's MWR can extend the VLA observations to deeper levels. We will complement our observations with data at 5- m, both spatially resolved and spectroscopic data. Both VLA radio and 5- m wavelengths probe down to ~8 bars in jupiter s atmosphere, but provide complementary information which can be used to characterize the atmosphere in detail. Objectives/methodology: we will use the upgraded VLA to produce global maps of the planet during several juno perijove encounters at 1-4 CM, with a spatial resolution similar to the juno/MWR footprint. We will simultaneously observe at 5- m with gemini in the continuum, and with keck using spectroscopy at a spectral resolution much higher than juno s infrared spectrometer jiram, which enables US to measure cloud altitudes, and gaseous water and ammonia profiles. By using both radio and 5- m data, we should be able to disentangle the contributions of the temperature-pressure profile, clouds, and ammonia altitude profiles. Relevance: in NASA s 2014 science plan for 2013--2022, NASA's science vision is described as: as certain the content, origin, and evolution of the solar system and the potential for life elsewhere , which has been translated into: to explore and observe the objects in the solar system to understand how they formed and evolved , and to advance the understanding of how chemical and physical processes in our solar system operate, interact, and evolve . In this proposal, we intend to study jupiter using ground-based observations taken simultaneously with juno/MWR data. These observations, along with their analysis, conform to the above vision, and are in direct support of a current NASA mission, juno, and future missions, such as juice. The results are also important for the study of exoplanets, an important goal in NASA s astrophysics division.