Stormy Day at Jupiter

Small bright clouds dot Jupiter's entire south tropical zone in this image acquired at an altitude of 12,858 kilometers. Although the bright clouds appear tiny in this vast Jovian cloudscape, they actually are cloud towers roughly 50 kilometers wide and 50 kilometers high that cast shadows on the clouds below. On Jupiter, clouds this high are almost certainly composed of water and/or ammonia ice, and they may be sources of lightning. This is the first time so many cloud towers have been visible, possibly because the late-afternoon lighting is particularly good at this geometry.