Jovian Vortex Hunter
Are you enchanted by the mysterious swirls and eddies in Jupiter’s atmosphere? These patterns, called “vortices” can teach us about what Jupiter’s atmosphere is made of. Indulge your fascination by joining the Jovian Vortex Hunter project, and help scientists understand this gas giant planet! The project examines cloud formations on Jupiter — their shapes, colors, sizes, and distribution from the Jovian equator to its poles. You’ll view the latest images from NASA’s Juno mission and catalog storms bigger than the entire Earth.
ages
18 and up
division
Solar System
where
Online
launched
2022
What you'll do
- Examine images of Jupiter’s clouds and mark and map the vortices that you see.
- Uncover the patterns of vortices in Jupiter’s atmosphere to reveal the underlying dynamics.
- Share and discuss what you are seeing with other project participants and the science team in the project’s Talk forums.
Requirements
- Time to get started: 5-15 minutes to complete the tutorial
- Equipment: Web-connected computer or phone.
- Knowledge: None. The in-project tutorial provides all the instruction you’ll need.
Get started!
- Visit the project website.
- Click “Classify” and complete the tutorial to learn how to identify, classify, and or circle vortices in images.
- Start your exploration of the swirling gas clouds of Jupiter!
Learn More
Keep up to date with the project’s progress by reading the Jovian Vortex Hunter blog. You can also learn about JuDE, a new tool for exploring what lies around the vortices you see in the Jovian Vortex Hunter’s workflow.
Want to do more with the science and beauty of Jupiter’s gaseous cloudy surface? Check out JunoCam!
And finally, follow the project on X @jvnvortexhunter!
![Big swirls, little swirls, spots, and streams of clouds swirl across this image of the gaseous atmosphere of Jupiter. The top of image is mostly blues and whites, the middle third has smaller, tighter curls and occasional spots in tans, whites, and blues. The bottom edge is dominated by a brownish, snaky line of clouds.](https://science.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/big-wide-bands-jvh.png?w=4096&format=png)
![White swirls of cloud play across this mostly blue image. A prominent swirl of white in the middle surrounds a darker blue spot. This is a dark vortex. A second spot of the same dark blue is above and left. The image also contains a red vortex in the lower right corner, and two white vortices. The larger of the white vortices is in the lower left corner, mostly out of the frame, with a pale green tinge. The smaller is in the lower right, adjacent to the trailing clouds of the dark vortex in the middle of the image.](https://science.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/dark-blue-jvh.png?w=4096&format=png)
![In an image of smokey tans and hazy blues, we see three distinct oval shapes, each outlined with a computer-drawn colored line. The two orange-tan spots, one just above the middle on the left side, and the other in the middle of the left edge of the image, are outlined in red. The light-colored spot in the upper right corner is outlined in white.](https://science.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/pale-brown-jvh.png?w=4096&format=png)
![Portrait photo of a smiling man](https://science.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/ramanakumar-sankar.png?w=4096&format=png)
![Portrait photo of a man](https://science.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/shawn-brueshaber-.jpeg?w=4096&format=jpeg)
![Portrait photo of a smiling woman](https://science.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/candice-hansen-koharcheck.png?w=4096&format=png)
![Photo of a man standing on a launchpad with a shuttle in the background](https://science.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/glenn-orton.png?w=4096&format=png)
![Portrait photo of a smiling young man in a suit.](https://science.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/chris-lintott.jpeg?w=4096&format=jpeg)
![Portrait photo of a smiling man](https://science.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/kameswara-mantha.jpeg?w=4096&format=jpeg)
![Portrait photo of a smiling woman](https://science.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/lucy-fortson.jpeg?w=4096&format=jpeg)