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Data from the Galileo Probe in Jupiter descent indicated descent velocity oscillations as large as ±5 m/s on a height scale of a few km, which suggested gravity waves in the atmosphere between 4 and 20 bars (Seiff et al., 1998), an important observation for atmospheric stability and dynamics. But we now find these velocity fluctuations to be inconsistent with simultaneous measurements of mean accelerations, which were relatively steady. This conflict is resolved in favor of the accelerometers. The velocity fluctuations can be explained from digital uncertainties in the slow rate of pressure rise. However, the accelerometers did record higher frequency perturbations of up to 0.1g. Attributed to turbulence, these imply turbulent velocities from 0.3 to 5 m/s at scales of 10 to 40 m. However, they were at least partly a result of unsteady parachute aerodynamics.

The results of the nephelometer experiment conducted aboard the probe of the Galileo mission to Jupiter are presented. The tenuous clouds and sparse particulate matter in the relatively particle-free 5-μm “hot spot” region of the probe's descent were documented from about 0.46 bar to about 12 bars. Three regions of apparent coherent structure were noted, in addition to many indications of extremely small particle concentrations along the descent path. From the first valid measurement at about 0.46 bar down to about 0.55 bar, a feeble decaying lower portion of a cloud, corresponding with the predicted ammonia particle cloud, was encountered. A denser, but still very modest, particle structure was present in the pressure regime extending from about 0.76 bar to a distinctive base at 1.34 bars and is compatible with the expected ammonium hydrosulfide cloud. No massive water cloud was encountered, although below the second structure, a small, vertically thin layer at about 1.65 bars may be detached from the cloud above, but may also be water condensation, compatible with reported measurements of water abundance from other Galileo Mission experiments. A third small signal region, extending from about 1.9 to 4.5 bars, exhibited quite weak but still distinctive structure and, although the identification of the light scatterers in this region is uncertain, may also be a water cloud, perhaps associated with lateral atmospheric motion and/or reduced to a small mass density by atmospheric subsidence or other causes. Rough descriptions of the particle size distributions and cloud properties in these regions have been derived, although they may be imprecise because of the small signals and experimental difficulties. These descriptions document the small number densities of particles, the moderate particle sizes, generally in the slightly submicron to few micron range, and the resulting small optical depths, mass densities due to particles, column particle number loading, and column mass loading in the atmosphere encountered by the Galileo probe during its descent.

Thermal structure of the atmosphere of Jupiter was measured from 1029 km above to 133 km below the 1-bar level during entry and descent of the Galileo probe. The data confirm the hot exosphere observed by Voyager (∼900 K at 1 nanobar). The deep atmosphere, which reached 429 K at 22 bars, was close to dry adiabatic from 6 to 16 bars within an uncertainty ∼0.1 K/km. The upper atmosphere was dominated by gravity waves from the tropopause to the exosphere. Shorter waves were fully absorbed below 300 km, while longer wave amplitudes first grew, then were damped at the higher altitudes. A remarkably deep isothermal layer was found in the stratosphere from 90 to 290 km with T ∼ 160 K. Just above the tropopause at 260 mbar, there was a second isothermal region ∼25 km deep with T ∼ 112 K. Between 10 and 1000 mbar, the data substantially agree with Voyager radio occultations. The Voyager 1 equatorial occultation was similar in detail to the present sounding through the tropopause region. The Voyager IRIS average thermal structure in the north equatorial belt (NEB) approximates a smoothed fit to the present data between 0.03 and 400 mbar. Differences are partly a result of large differences in vertical resolution but may also reflect differences between a hot spot and the average NEB. At 15 4 bars, probe descent velocities derived from the data are consistently unsteady, suggesting the presence of large-scale turbulence or gravity waves. However, there was no evidence of turbulent temperature fluctuations >0.12 K. A conspicuous pause in the rate of decrease of descent velocity between 1.1 and 1.35 bars, where a disturbance was also detected by the two radio Doppler experiments, implies strong vertical flow in the cloud seen by the probe nephelometer. At p < 0.6 bar, measured temperatures were ∼3 K warmer than the dry adiabat, possible evidence of radiative warming. This could be associated with a tenuous cloud detected by the probe nephelometer above the 0.51 bar level. For an ammonia cloud to form at this level, the required abundance is ∼0.20 × solar.

A three-axis short-period seismometer has been operating on the surface of Mars in the Utopia Planitia region since September 4, 1976. During the first 5 months of operation, approximately 640 hours of high quality data, uncontaminated by lander or wind noise, have been obtained. The detection threshold is estimated to be magnitude 3 to about 200 km and about 6.5 for the planet as a whole. No large events have been seen during this period, a result indicating that Mars is less seismically active than earth. Wind is the major source of noise during the day, although the noise level was at or below the sensitivity threshold of the seismometer for most of the night during the early part of the mission. Winds and therefore the seismic background started to intrude into the nighttime hours starting on sol 119 (a sol is a Martian day). The seismic background correlates well with wind velocity and is proportional to the square of the wind velocity, as is appropriate for turbulent flow. The seismic envelope power spectral density is proportional to frequency to the -0.66 to -0.90 power during windy periods. A possible local seismic event was detected on sol 80. No wind data were obtained at the time, so a wind disturbance cannot be ruled out. However, this event has some unusual characteristics and is similar to local events recorded on earth through a Viking seismometer system. If it is interpreted as a natural seismic event, it has a magnitude of 3 and a distance of 110 km. Preliminary interpretation of later arrivals in the signal suggest a crustal thickness of 15 km at the Utopia Planitia site which is within the range of crustal models derived from the gravity field. More events must be recorded before a firm interpretation can be made of seismicity or crustal structure. One firm conclusion is that the natural background noise on Mars is low and that the wind is the prime noise source. It will be possible to reduce this noise by a factor of 10^3 on future missions by removing the seismometer from the lander, operation of an extremely sensitive seismometer thus being possible on the surface.