The Jupiter effect

There has been a celestial body that received a lot of media attention this summer. The largest planet in our solar system, Jupiter, is going to be studied more closely thanks to the NASA probe Juno. This spacecraft will be the ninth one to visit the gas giant.

On July 4, after a 5-year journey, Juno arrived at Jupiter with a mission to study its structure and magnetosphere with hopes of a better understanding on how our solar system came together. At the end of this month, after it completes two orbits, Juno will only be about 2,600 miles over Jupiter’s clouds, the closest this craft will ever be to the planet during its entire mission.

In my Physical Geography class that I teach at North Idaho College, we briefly talk about Jupiter and its influence in our solar system. Believe it or not, many scientists agree that life on Earth would likely not exist without the gas giant.

Computer simulations show that Jupiter and also Saturn’s large gravitational fields have likely protected Earth and the other interior planets from many impacts from large, fast-moving objects in space. Of course, Earth has seen its share of meteorite impacts, including the one that probably ended the reign of the dinosaurs about 65 million years ago. But, Jupiter and Saturn’s gravity seems to have given us enough protection for life to thrive on Earth as too many impacts could have resulted in the loss of our planet’s atmosphere.

Jupiter is also getting the credit for enhancing the Perseid meteor shower last week. As Earth passes through the debris from the Swift-Tuttle comet every year at this time, many of us are treated to a meteor shower. However, this year, Jupiter was close to the comet stream and its immense gravity helped to push its debris closer to the Earth giving us a better show. In case you missed the peak last week, the Perseid meteor shower is expected to continue through Aug. 24, but there won’t be quite as many meteors to view. The best viewing is late at night and away from the city lights.

In the late 2000s, much of the northern U.S., including North Idaho, experienced record snowfalls. During that time, sunspot activity was extremely low and we also had a strong cooler La Nina sea-surface temperature pattern.

Research conducted in the late 2000s indicated there may be a correlation between the lack of solar storms and the orbit of Jupiter. That large planet’s powerful magnetic field that moves inside the Sun’s even more powerful magnetic field may somehow “twist the solar magnetic field in ways that affects sunspot activity.” Based on long-term data, when Jupiter is nearest to the Sun, the number of solar storms, or sunspots, usually becomes very low. The next time Jupiter is expected to be closest to the sun will be in the early 2020s. Remember, Cliff predicts more record snows for our region around that time.

In case you were wondering, Jupiter has the shortest day of all planets, only 9 hours and 55 minutes. It orbits the Sun once every 11.8 Earth years and has at least 67 moons. Its Great Red Spot is a huge storm that has raged for at least 350 years and is so big that three of our Earths could fit inside.

In terms of our local weather, August may end up to be a wetter than normal month. Thanks to the “new moon” rains, Coeur d’Alene has already picked up .66 inches of moisture. The normal precipitation for August is 1.23 inches.

The storm system that brought us the rain and thunderstorm activity about a week ago, also produced an EF0 tornado, the lowest reading on the Enhanced Fujita intensity scale, in Airway Heights in Washington. That’s a bit unusual for so late in the season. By the way, Washington averages 2.8 tornadoes per year while Idaho normally sees 4.8 tornadoes per year. Most of Idaho’s tornadoes are often seen in the southern part of the state.

Cliff and I believe we’ll see more showers develop toward the end of the “full moon” lunar cycle of Aug. 18-23. This could mean the North Idaho State Fair may see some wet weather during its event later this month. Hopefully, most of the activity that does form will stay over the mountains.

We may also see some rain develop in early September, but drier conditions should briefly develop later next month. As sea-surface temperatures continue to cool down, the upcoming winter season looks snowier than normal across the Inland Empire.

Until then, we can expect another stretch of dry and very warm weather this week across North Idaho and surrounding locations as high temperatures warm to near 90 degrees.