spacetoday.net: Jupiter's spots predicted to disappear

Posted: Thu, Apr 22, 2004, 4:58 AM ET (0858 GMT)
Jupiter (NASA)

Most of the large storms in Jupiter's atmosphere that appear in images of the giant planet as spots will disappear over the next several years, one scientist predicts. In a paper published in the current issue of the journal Nature, Philip Marcus of the University of California Berkeley writes that most of the storms currently seen in the atmosphere will disappear in the next seven years as a 70-year climate cycle comes to an end, causing the temperature of the atmosphere to change as much as 10 degrees Celsius. This temperature change — an increase near the equator and a decrease at the poles — will destabilize the jet streams, forming new sets of storms. The Great Red Spot, the largest storm on the planet, is expected to survive this period of climate change.