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juliensimon/galileo-jupiter-atmosphere

Galileo Probe Jupiter Atmospheric Profile Part of the Space Probe & Mission Datasets collection on Hugging Face. Jupiter atmospheric structure measured by the Galileo Probe Atmospheric Structure Instrument (ASI) during entry and descent on December 7, 1995. The probe entered Jupiter's atmosphere at 6.5 degrees north planetocentric latitude and measured conditions from the stratosphere (1000 km altitude) down to the ~22 bar pressure level (130 km below the 1-bar reference).… See the full description on the dataset page: https://huggingface.co/datasets/juliensimon/galileo-jupiter-atmosphere.

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Dataset Card

Galileo Probe Jupiter Atmospheric Profile

Part of the [Space Probe & Mission Datasets](https://huggingface.co/collections/juliensimon/space-probe-and-mission-datasets-69c3fe82d410a42b1e313167) collection on Hugging Face.

Jupiter atmospheric structure measured by the Galileo Probe Atmospheric Structure Instrument (ASI) during entry and descent on December 7, 1995. The probe entered Jupiter's atmosphere at 6.5 degrees north planetocentric latitude and measured conditions from the stratosphere (~1000 km altitude) down to the ~22 bar pressure level (~130 km below the 1-bar reference).

Currently 686 measurements: 386 from the entry phase (upper atmosphere) and 300 from the parachute descent phase.

Dataset description

The Galileo Probe was the first (and so far only) spacecraft to directly sample a giant planet's atmosphere. Released from the Galileo orbiter, it entered Jupiter's atmosphere at ~47 km/s and deployed a parachute at ~23 km above the 1-bar level. The Atmospheric Structure Instrument (ASI) measured temperature, pressure, and density throughout the entry and descent phases.

The entry phase covers the upper atmosphere (stratosphere and upper troposphere, ~1000 km down to ~23 km altitude) where measurements are derived from probe deceleration. The descent phase covers the lower troposphere (~17 km down to ~-133 km, i.e., from 0.4 bar to ~22 bar) using direct temperature and pressure sensors under parachute.

Schema

Column	Type	Description
`phase`	string	Measurement phase: "entry" (upper atmosphere) or "descent" (lower atmosphere)
`time_s`	float64	Time from minor frame 0 (seconds)
`altitude_km`	float64	Altitude above the 1-bar pressure level (km; negative = below 1-bar)
`pressure_bar`	float64	Ambient atmospheric pressure (bar)
`pressure_mbar`	float64	Ambient atmospheric pressure (millibar) — entry phase only
`temperature_k`	float64	Atmospheric temperature (Kelvin)
`density_kg_m3`	float64	Atmospheric mass density (kg/m^3)
`mean_molecular_weight_amu`	float64	Mean molecular weight (AMU) — entry phase only
`cp_over_cv`	float64	Ratio of specific heats — entry phase only
`gas_constant_j_kg_k`	float64	Specific gas constant R (J/kg/K) — entry phase only
`gravity_m_s2`	float64	Local gravitational acceleration (m/s^2) — descent phase only
`descent_velocity_m_s`	float64	Probe descent velocity (m/s) — descent phase only
`temperature_gradient_k_km`	float64	Temperature lapse rate dT/dz (K/km) — descent phase only
`velocity_km_s`	float64	Probe velocity relative to atmosphere (km/s) — entry phase only
`flight_path_angle_deg`	float64	Flight path angle relative to atmosphere (degrees) — entry phase only
`latitude_deg`	float64	Planetocentric latitude (degrees) — entry phase only
`longitude_deg`	float64	System III west longitude (degrees) — entry phase only

Quick stats

—686 atmospheric measurements (entry + descent)
—Altitude range: 1029 km to -133 km (above 1-bar level)
—Pressure range: 9.66e-10 bar to 22.05 bar
—Temperature range: 107 K to 904 K
—Date: December 7, 1995

Usage

python

from datasets import load_dataset

ds = load_dataset("juliensimon/galileo-jupiter-atmosphere", split="train")
df = ds.to_pandas()

# Full temperature profile
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
plt.plot(df["temperature_k"], df["altitude_km"])
plt.xlabel("Temperature (K)")
plt.ylabel("Altitude above 1-bar (km)")
plt.title("Jupiter Temperature Profile — Galileo Probe")
plt.grid(True)
plt.show()

# Descent phase only — pressure vs temperature
descent = df[df["phase"] == "descent"]
plt.semilogy(descent["temperature_k"], descent["pressure_bar"])
plt.xlabel("Temperature (K)")
plt.ylabel("Pressure (bar)")
plt.gca().invert_yaxis()
plt.title("Jupiter T-P Profile (Descent Phase)")
plt.show()

# Entry phase — upper atmosphere density
entry = df[df["phase"] == "entry"]
plt.semilogy(entry["density_kg_m3"], entry["altitude_km"])
plt.xlabel("Density (kg/m^3)")
plt.ylabel("Altitude (km)")
plt.title("Jupiter Upper Atmosphere Density")
plt.show()

Data source

NASA PDS Atmospheres Node — Galileo Probe ASI. Data from the Atmospheric Structure Instrument (ASI) on the Galileo Probe, archived by the Planetary Data System. Reference: Seiff et al. (1998), "Thermal structure of Jupiter's atmosphere near the edge of a 5-micron hot spot in the north equatorial belt", J. Geophys. Res., 103(E10), 22857-22889.

Update schedule

Static dataset (one-time upload). The Galileo Probe entered Jupiter on December 7, 1995.

Related datasets

—deep-space-probes — Voyager 1/2 and Pioneer 10/11 merged hourly data
—jupiter-magnetosphere — Juno magnetometer data at Jupiter

Pipeline

Source code: juliensimon/space-datasets

Support

If you find this dataset useful, please give it a ❤️ on the dataset page and share feedback in the Community tab! Also consider giving a ⭐ to the space-datasets repo.

Citation

bibtex

@dataset{galileo_jupiter_atmosphere,
  author = {Simon, Julien},
  title = {Galileo Probe Jupiter Atmospheric Profile},
  year = {2026},
  publisher = {Hugging Face},
  url = {https://huggingface.co/datasets/juliensimon/galileo-jupiter-atmosphere},
  note = {Based on NASA/PDS Galileo Probe Atmospheric Structure Instrument (ASI) data. Original PI: A. Seiff (NASA Ames)}
}

License

CC-BY-4.0