Simulation of the H2O measurement in the Jupiter's atmosphere in forecast of the Juno mission

In view of a possible Italian participation to the NASA New Frontiers mission Juno to Jupiter, whose launch is planned for 2011, Italy proposes to extend its contribution by the addition of JIRAM (Jovian InfraRed Auroral Mapper) to the scientific payload. In order to show the possibilities of JIRAM in observing the Jupiter atmospheric water content, we simulated the H2O measurements inside a hot spot that, for its particular dynamical structure, is characterized by low optical depths. This fact allows to an imaging spectrometer like JIRAM to sound the tropospheric layers in deeper levels than on the rest of the planet. The simulation of the H2O measurements has been realized using a radiative transfer model named ARS. This code is based on the spectroscopic archives HITRAN (HIgh TRANsmission molecular absorption database), and uses the line-by-line technique to compute transmissivity calculations. The simulation regards the atmospheric emission, in the spectral interval between 4.5 and 5.3 m, that comes from the inner regions of the planet. In order to calculate the characteristics emission/absorption of the atmosphere we have been taken in consideration other gases in trace beyond water like CH4, PH3 e NH3 that are active in the sounded spectral interval.