Tracking winds in Jupiter and Saturn
Michael H. Wong, Research Scientist
Space Sciences Laboratory
Applications for Fall 2025 are closed for this project.
We use imaging time-series data from space telescopes (Hubble and James Webb) to track the motion of cloud features and measure the two-dimensional wind fields in Jupiter and Saturn. The most prominent features in the wind velocity fields of these atmospheres are east-west jets and coherent vortices. Objectives include: (1) measure changes over time to identify climate processes and cycles, (2) set limits to test models of the deeper atmospheric structure, and (3) describe the dynamical environment in which exotic (i.e., non-water) clouds and hazes interact to form the rich palette of hues observed at visible wavelengths. The source data are the highest resolution imaging currently available with sufficient time sampling for velocimetry. Our methods have previously been demonstrated to achieve uncertainties in the range of 5-10 m/s in Jupiter's atmosphere. This is the first listing of our long-term project on the URAP portal.
Role: Depending on candidates' interest and abilities, multiple opportunities to contribute are available. Tasks include scientific image processing, mapping and coordinate transformation, parameter-fixing and execution of custom c++ code for velocity extraction, development of the codebase to include new neural network pattern matching, and visualization and presentation of results. With sufficient contribution, students will be eligible to co-author journal publications, and each student who completes processing of a dataset, or development of a code update, will be invited to publish a technical dataset (assigned a DOI) as lead author.
Qualifications: The student should have a desire to learn and conduct basic research and a solid understanding of concepts including astronomy, planetary science, fluid dynamics, and scientific computing. The student must be responsible, conscientious, attentive to detail and able to relate the details of their work to the larger objectives of the project. Students will be better candidates for specific tasks if they have experience with: scientific image processing (FITS, HDF5); development with C++, IDL, Python and PyTorch; plotting and data visualization; web development with CSS and HTML; writing and science communication.
Hours: 9-11 hrs
Off-Campus Research Site: Space Sciences Laboratory and Etcheverry Hall
Related website: https://research.ssl.berkeley.edu/~mikewong/projects.php
Related website: https://github.com/xylar/acciv/wiki