Long-term evolution of the aerosol debris cloud produced by the 2009 impact on jupiter

► We present a study of the long-term evolution of the cloud of aerosols produced in the atmosphere of Jupiter by the impact of an object on 19 July 2009. ► The impact cloud expanded zonally from ∼5000 km to 225,000 km (29 October), remaining meridionally localized within a latitude band from 53.5S to 61.5S planetographic latitude. ► We find that the westward jet at 56.5S latitude increases its eastward velocity with altitude with vertical wind shear of 1 ms per scale height above the tropopause. ► A pure advection of the aerosols by the winds and their shears and a nonlinear simulation (EPIC code) of the evolution of the potential vorticity field generated by a heat pulse, reproduce the observed global structure of the cloud, its optical depth decrease, and the dominant zonal dispersion of the aerosols.