Planetary scientists detected that an anticyclone on Jupiter called the Little Red Spot produces winds up to 384 miles per hour, far exceeding the 156 mph mark that would make it a category five storm on Earth. Scientists measured wind speeds and directions by tracking the motion of cloud features from two image mosaics from a telescopic Long Range Reconnaissance Imager, taken 30 minutes apart. They combined the LORRI maps with visible-color images from Hubble, and mid-infrared images from the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope allowing scientists to “see” thermal structure and dynamics beneath the visible cloud layers.
