As I've written about several times, a few months ago Jupiter lost one of its belts. Normally there are two dark, wide bands of clouds framing its equator, but the southern one disappeared recently. It's happened before, and the cause isn't well-understood (I favor the idea that it sinks a bit, and a layer of opaque clouds flow over it, hiding it from view). It always re-appears sometime later.
And that seems to be happening now. As my pal Emily Lakdawalla reports on The Planetary Society blog, there are odd atmospheric phenomena occurring where the belt should be, and they appear to be on the rise. In the picture here (from Emily's blog; go there to get an enjovianted version) I've arrowed the outbreaks, which appear as a series of comma-shaped dark clouds. If true, this could be the harbinger of Jupiter's belt resurfacing. I hope so, actually. If we ...
