The Complete Life Cycle of Dark Spot NDS‐2018 on Neptune

Abstract The Hubble Space Telescope collected imaging data spanning the full lifetime of Neptune's dark spot NDS‐2018, which is the sixth large, persistent dark spot seen in the planet's atmosphere. Neptune's dark spots are thought to be anticyclonic vortices, although internal flows have never been directly measured to confirm their rotation. Previous reports covered the formation and evolution of the mature NDS‐2018, while here we report that the contrast weakened over the 2021 to 2022 period, while the feature rapidly drifted equatorward from 14 deg N to 6–7 deg N planetographic latitude. The persistence of the spot so close to the equator is surprising, and represents a challenge for numerical models which find anticyclones to be disrupted within 15 deg of the equator. The changing contrast of the dark spot constrains changes in the aerosols over time, but the link between dynamical and microphysical properties of dark vortices is not known.

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Publication Details

Journal
Geophysical Research Letters
Published
2026-07-28
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1029/2026gl122748
Primary Topic
Astro and Planetary Science
Type
article
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article

The Complete Life Cycle of Dark Spot NDS‐2018 on Neptune

R. Morales‐Juberias, Amy A. Simon, Agustín Sánchez-Lavega, R. Hueso et al.
Geophysical Research Letters
Astro and Planetary Science
article

The Complete Life Cycle of Dark Spot NDS‐2018 on Neptune

R. Morales‐Juberias, Amy A. Simon, Agustín Sánchez-Lavega, R. Hueso, P. G. J. Irwin, Lawrence A. Sromovsky, P. M. Fry, Imke de Pater, Michael H. Wong
article en

Abstract

Abstract The Hubble Space Telescope collected imaging data spanning the full lifetime of Neptune's dark spot NDS‐2018, which is the sixth large, persistent dark spot seen in the planet's atmosphere. Neptune's dark spots are thought to be anticyclonic vortices, although internal flows have never been directly measured to confirm their rotation. Previous reports covered the formation and evolution of the mature NDS‐2018, while here we report that the contrast weakened over the 2021 to 2022 period, while the feature rapidly drifted equatorward from 14 deg N to 6–7 deg N planetographic latitude. The persistence of the spot so close to the equator is surprising, and represents a challenge for numerical models which find anticyclones to be disrupted within 15 deg of the equator. The changing contrast of the dark spot constrains changes in the aerosols over time, but the link between dynamical and microphysical properties of dark vortices is not known.

Geophysical Research LettersVol. 53(14)
Planetary Science Institute (US), Goddard Space Flight Center (US), University of Wisconsin–Madison (US), University of the Basque Country (ES), New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology (US), University of Oxford (GB), Ente Vasco de la Energía (ES), Science Oxford (GB), University of California, Berkeley (US)
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