Jupiter’s upper atmosphere is considerably hotter than expected from the amount of sunlight that it receives^1,2,3. Processes that couple the magnetosphere to the atmosphere give rise to intense auroral emissions and enormous deposition of energy in the magnetic polar regions, so it has been presumed that redistribution of this energy could heat the rest of the planet^4,5,6. Instead, most thermospheric global circulation models demonstrate that auroral energy is trapped at high latitudes by the strong winds on this rapidly rotating planet^3,5,7,8,9,10. Consequently, other possible heat sources have continued to be studied, such as heating by gravity waves and acoustic waves emanating from the lower atmosphere^2,11,12,13. Each mechanism would imprint a unique signature on the global Jovian temperature gradients, thus revealing the dominant heat source, but a lack of planet-wide, high-resolution data has meant that these gradients have not been determined. Here we report infrared spectroscopy of Jupiter with a spatial resolution of 2 degrees in longitude and latitude, extending from pole to equator. We find that temperatures decrease steadily from the auroral polar regions to the equator. Furthermore, during a period of enhanced activity possibly driven by a solar wind compression, a high-temperature planetary-scale structure was observed that may be propagating from the aurora. These observations indicate that Jupiter’s upper atmosphere is predominantly heated by the redistribution of auroral energy.

木星的高层大气比其接收到的阳光量所预期的要热得多^1,2,3 。将磁层与大气耦合的过程会产生强烈的极光发射，并在磁极区域沉积大量能量，因此人们推测这种能量的重新分配可能会加热地球的其他部分^4,5,6 。相反，大多数热层全球环流模型表明，极光能量被这个快速旋转的行星上的强风困在高纬度地区^3,5,7,8,9,10 。因此，人们继续研究其他可能的热源，例如通过重力波和从低层大气发出的声波加热^2,11,12,13 。每种机制都会在全球木星温度梯度上留下独特的特征，从而揭示主要的热源，但缺乏全行星范围内的高分辨率数据意味着这些梯度尚未确定。在这里，我们报告了木星的红外光谱，其经度和纬度的空间分辨率为 2 度，从极地延伸到赤道。我们发现，从极光极地地区到赤道，温度稳步下降。此外，在可能由太阳风压缩驱动的活动增强时期，观察到可能从极光传播的高温行星尺度结构。这些观测结果表明，木星的高层大气主要是由极光能量的重新分布加热的。