A view of Jupiter in mid-December, 2017, as Juno was completing its 10th close flyby, at a distance of about 8,500 miles from the cloud tops. Scientists count a new orbit of Jupiter each time Juno reaches its closest point in orbit, which is called a periapsis—specifically in the case of Jupiter, a "perijove." #

From the NASA description: Waves of clouds at 37.8 degrees latitude dominate this three-dimensional Jovian cloudscape. JunoCam obtained this enhanced-color picture on May 19, 2017, from an altitude of 5,500 miles. Details as small as four miles (6 kilometers) across can be identified in this image. The small bright high clouds are about 16 miles (25 kilometers) across and in some areas appear to form "squall lines" (a narrow band of high winds and storms associated with a cold front). On Jupiter, clouds this high are almost certainly composed of water and/or ammonia ice. #

Small patches of white clouds appear above the sea of swirling gas during Perijove 9. Note the shadows being cast, and the clouds at far right that reach high enough to catch sunlight even though they are surrounded by darkness. The white clouds are likely updrafts of ammonia ice crystals possibly mixed with water ice. Uploaded on November 9, 2017. #

From the NASA description: The Juno spacecraft captured this image when the spacecraft was only 11,747 miles (18,906 kilometers) from the tops of Jupiter’s clouds—roughly as far as the distance between New York City and Perth, Australia. The color-enhanced image, which captures a cloud system in Jupiter’s northern hemisphere, was taken on October 24, 2017. #

From the NASA description: The tumultuous Great Red Spot is fading from Juno's view while the dynamic bands of the southern region of Jupiter come into focus. North is to the left of the image, and south is on the right. The image was taken on July 10, 2017, as the Juno spacecraft performed its seventh close flyby of Jupiter. At the time the image was taken, the spacecraft was 10,274 miles (16,535 kilometers) from the tops of the clouds of the planet. #

From the NASA description: This color-enhanced image of a massive, raging storm in Jupiter’s northern hemisphere was captured by NASA’s Juno spacecraft during its ninth close flyby of the gas giant planet. The image was taken on October 24, 2017 from a distance of about 6,281 miles (10,108 kilometers) from the tops of the clouds of Jupiter. The storm is rotating counter-clockwise with a wide range of cloud altitudes. The darker clouds are expected to be deeper in the atmosphere than the brightest clouds. Within some of the bright “arms” of this storm, smaller clouds and banks of clouds can be seen, some of which are casting shadows to the right side of this picture (sunlight is coming from the left). The bright clouds and their shadows range from approximately four to eight miles (seven to 12 kilometers) in both widths and lengths. These appear similar to the small clouds in other bright regions Juno has detected and are expected to be updrafts of ammonia ice crystals possibly mixed with water ice. #

From the NASA description: A dynamic storm at the southern edge of Jupiter’s northern polar region dominates this Jovian cloudscape. This storm is a long-lived anticyclonic oval named North North Temperate Little Red Spot 1 (NN-LRS-1). It has been tracked at least since 1993, and may be older still. An anticyclone is a weather phenomenon where winds around the storm flow in the direction opposite to that of the flow around a region of low pressure. It is the third largest anticyclonic oval on the planet, typically around 3,700 miles (6,000 kilometers) long. The color varies between red and off-white (as it is now), but this JunoCam image shows that it still has a pale reddish core within the radius of maximum wind speeds. #

One last look at the cloud tops: A lonely patch of white clouds floats above Jupiter's endless swirling atmosphere, viewed by Juno during Perijove 6, uploaded on June 7, 2017. #