Dowling will appear in a one-hour segment, 鈥淎lien Wind,鈥 which debuts at 9 p.m. ET May 16. On the show, he uses laboratory and field studies to make connections between weather on Earth and the planets.

A UofL professor since 1997, Dowling probes the composition and behavior of the gases that surround planets. In 2004, he co-edited a leading reference book on Jupiter. His computer model of planetary atmospheres is used by NASA and researchers around the world.

Last year, he and his colleagues discovered that Saturn is rotating five minutes faster than previously thought鈥攁 fact they gleaned from analyzing wave patterns in the planet鈥檚 clouds. The study, published in the journal Nature, shed new light on the planet鈥檚 density and interior structure.

In 2007, he appeared in 鈥淭he Universe,鈥 a series on The History Channel, and in 2001, he appeared in 鈥淧lanet Storm,鈥 a Discovery Channel program about planetary weather.

听In 鈥淎lien Wind,鈥 Dowling works with marine biologists on the California coast to learn more about Jupiter鈥檚 wind currents by attaching a data recorder to an elephant seal.

鈥淭hese seals are the world鈥檚 greatest detectives of giant ocean eddies, which move in patterns much like analogous eddies on Jupiter,鈥 Dowling said.