JOVIAL Kick-off Meeting

Since the very beginning of helioseismology, the possibility to apply the same technics to giant planets has been contemplated. In 2011, SYMPA detected for the first time acoustic oscillations of Jupiter, opening a new window to internal structure of giant planets. In 2013, f-modes of Saturn were also detected by Cassini into the structure of the rings, giving new constraints about its deep internal structure.

JOVIAL (Jupiter: Oscillation through Velocity Image at severAl Longitudes) was recently selected by the French Research Agency (ANR) for funding for a 4 years program. It aims at a study of the internal structure and atmosphere dynamics of the giant planets Jupiter and Saturn. JOVIAL is based on a recent development of a new Doppler Spectro Imager (DSI), based on the same principle as the SYMPA instrument, with an improved sensitivity and spatial resolution, able to detect oscillation modes on Jupiter up to the degree l=25. It should definitively solve the question of the Jovian core size and mass, giving clues to the formation of the giant planet. It will also measure winds in the atmosphere of the planet and make the link between the internal rotation and dynamics.

JOVIAL will allow to complete the JIVE (Jovian Interiors Velocimetry Experiment) in New Mexico and the DSI prototype at Calern observatory to set-up a true network around the Earth for almost continuous observations of Jupiter and Saturn for  several weeks each year after 2018.

In April 2016, we organize a 3 days meeting in Nice to organize the scientific collaboration around the project. The meeting will present the status of the project and discuss the responsibilities of the members within the collaboration. It will be the occasion to present the most recent works in the field of giant planet interior and formation, planetary atmosphere dynamics, seismic measurement and inversion, data processing and more.

The meeting will take place at Nice Observatory, Nice, France. The possibility to attend the conference through visioconference system is also foreseen.

A preliminary program of the meeting, to be updated as a function of the people who can attend, can be found here.Please update the title of your presentation when you register.After the meeting, the presentations will be made available to all the participants through the meeting webpage.