Search for NH3 in Jupiter’s Stratosphere Ten Months after SL9’s Collision

The collisions also injected tropospheric ammonia (NH3) in the stratosphere where it is ordinarily absent. SignaWe present high–resolution 11–mm NH3 observations of the Shoemaker–Levy 9 sites that were conducted on May 15–18, tures from stratospheric ammonia were detected from 1995 UT at the NASA Infrared Telescope Facility. No emission thermal infrared spectroscopy at the NASA Infrared from stratospheric NH3 was detected at any location. The upper Telescope Facility (IRTF) (Orton et al. 1995) and from limit on the NH3 column density above 40 mbar is 6 3 10 ultraviolet observations made with the Hubble Space molecule cm, about 30 times less than that observed on July Telescope’s (HST) Faint Object Spectrograph (FOS) 20–31 1994 UT over the K site. Destruction of stratospheric (Noll et al. 1995). High–resolution observations of two NH3 indicates that shielding from ultraviolet radiation was not ammonia lines at 908 and 948 cm21 were performed over efficient over a period of several months. Latitudinal variations the K site at the IRTF on July 20, 25, 30, and 31, 1994 observed in the NH3 absorption line can be interpreted through UT using the Irshell spectrometer. A detailed analysis variations in the tropospheric temperature field consistent with of these spectra indicates that the bulk of the NH3 Voyager and ground–based observations. No change in troporesided in the lower stratosphere around the 20-mbar spheric NH3 around impact latitude needs to be invoked to explain these variations.  1997 Academic Press level (Griffith et al. 1996). A comprehensive investigation of the HST/FOS spectral observations of the G site in July and August 1994 shows that most of the NH3 was