Characterization of the Atmosphere in Jupiter's Great Red Spot

Polarimetry is a powerful remote sensing technique that can be used to characterize plane- tary atmospheres and potentially, to detect and characterize exoplanets. The degree of linear polarization as a function of wavelength and phase angle varies with the presence and compo- sition of cloud, haze and gas particles. In particular, when in-situ measurements are difficult to obtain, this technique can be used to obtain an approximate atmospheric profile. This is the case of Jupiter. The aim of this thesis is to compute a detailed profile of the atmosphere in the Great Red Spot of Jupiter. Polarimetry observations for this planet at different wavelengths and a phase angle of 10.7° are used for the fitting process. The objective of the project is to obtain the cloud and haze particles present in the atmosphere, together with the altitude at which they are. For this purpose, a FORTRAN code is used to simulate the polarization val- ues by means of a doubling-adding radiative transfer algorithm. Mie scattering theory is used to obtain the particle properties present in the atmosphere. In order to find the best match of the simulations to the observations, a Matlab fitting algorithm is developed. Once, the fit- ting is done, the main conclusions obtained are that in the Great Red Spot, higher and thinner clouds are present than in the surroundings. The atmospheric profile that best fitted the ob- servations includes a base Water crystal cloud layer, followed by a higher Amonia cloud and finally, a top haze layer. It must be noted that at higher wavelengths, the presence of the GRS is clearer but also it was challenging to find a fitting of the highest polarization values. This fitting method can be also extrapolated to Jupiter-like exoplanets, therefore being able to, ei- ther simulate what a planet would look like if it existed by changing the geometry conditions, or characterize a already known exoplanet if polarization measurements are available. An ad- ditional analysis was done simulating how the Great Red Spot would look like if observed at different phase angles as if the measurements were taken with a satellite in-situ including a polarimeter on-board. The conclusion was that as the phase angle increased, so did the degree of polarization. In the case of the Great Red Spot, the regions of higher and lower polarization could still be identified. However, as the phase angle increased and so did the shadow region of the planet, the fitting became more difficult.Aerospace Engineerin