Atmospheric Science and the JIMO Mission

The Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter mission will intensely study Callisto, Ganymede and Eu- ropa for several years. During its orbital tour, there will be long periods (approximately 300 days) where the spacecraft is spiraling in from one satellite to the next, giving the perfect opportunity to study Jupiter's atmosphere. The obvious question is, 'Why do we need JIMO to do this, after Voyager, Galileo and the Cassini flyby?' Much like the satellite science from these missions, atmospheric science still has many outstanding questions, some of which were raised by these missions. In addition, virtually every measurable quantity on Jupiter varies both spatially and temporally, and previous missions did not supply the coverage needed to address them. The JIMO mission offers an outstanding opportunity for the global and long temporal coverage needed to answer these questions.