  The dark colors of Jupiter's North Equatorial Belt (NEB, $7-17^\circ$N)
appeared to expand northward into the neighboring zone in 2015, consistent with
a 3-5 year cycle of activity in the NEB. Inversions of thermal-IR imaging from
the Very Large Telescope revealed a moderate warming and reduction of aerosol
opacity at the cloud tops at $17-20^\circ$N, suggesting subsidence and drying
in the expanded sector. Two new thermal waves were identified during this
period: (i) an upper tropospheric thermal wave (wavenumber 16-17, amplitude 2.5
K at 170 mbar) in the mid-NEB that was anti-correlated with haze reflectivity;
and (ii) a stratospheric wave (wavenumber 13-14, amplitude 7.3 K at 5 mbar) at
$20-30^\circ$N. Both were quasi-stationary, confined to regions of eastward
zonal flow, and are morphologically similar to waves observed during previous
expansion events.
