HOW WILL DUST FROM SHOEMAKER-LEVY-9 ALTER JUPITER STRATOSPHERIC AEROSOL POPULATIONS

Jupiter's stratospheric haze is most abundant in the polar regions. Th is polar stratospheric haze has a distinctive signature: bright polar caps are visible in methane absorption band images at 0.89 mum. The up coming Shoemaker-Levy 9 impacts should significantly add to the strato spheric haze population, as a result of direct dust impact and perhaps as a result of a splash component of dust explosively ejected from th e impact sites. The extra material will predominantly land in the sout hern hemisphere. Comet dust has a low albedo, and will generally lower Jupiter's brightness in continuum images, particularly near the limb. However, in the 0.89 mum methane absorption band images we expect Jup iter to brighten in dust impact regions, since the dust scatters light above most of the methane absorbers. Stratospheric sedimentation time s are generally on the order of years, so this new haze component will be persistent.