Motions of Jupiter’s Atmosphere

This color movie of Jupiter from the Cassini spacecraft shows what it would look like to peel the globe of Jupiter from 60° north of the equator to 60° south, stretch it out on a wall into the form of a rectangular map, and watch its atmosphere evolve with time. The movie spans 24 Jupiter rotations between Oct. 31 and Nov. 9, 2000. You can see the zonal winds: horizontal bands adjacent to each other move at different rates. The Great Red Spot shows its counterclockwise rotation, and to the east (right) of the Red Spot oval storms, like ball bearings, roll over and pass each other. Small, very bright features appear quickly and randomly in turbulent regions, candidates for lightning storms. (NASA/JPL/University of Arizona)