Direct Detection of Vertical Wind Shear in Saturn on the Peaks of the Eastward Jets

Details Direct Detection of Vertical Wind Shear in Saturn on the Peaks of the Eastward Jets Direct Detection of Vertical Wind Shear in Saturn on the Peaks of the Eastward Jets

Sep 2008

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2008dps....40.3509g&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #40, #35.09; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 40, p.460

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Up to the present, evidence of the vertical wind shear in Saturn at cloud level has been captured in the equatorial jet. For other regions the vertical shear of the zonal wind system above the main cloud deck of Saturn's atmosphere has been inferred from meridional temperature measurements at different altitudes by using the Cassini CIRS instrument. Here we extend our previous measurements of the equatorial vertical wind shear to the whole southern hemisphere. We have measured the vertical shear of the zonal winds in the cloud-haze upper layer of Saturn using Cassini ISS images obtained in the MT2 (methane absorption band at 725 nm, sensitive to the upper haze) and CB2 (adjacent continuum, sensing lower cloud) bands. We have found that only the peak of the eastward jets show a decrease in velocity with altitude. The velocity decreases by an amount of 20 m/s in the eastward jets with peak at 27ºS, 42ºS, 55ºS and 70ºS planetocentric latitude or 10ms-1H-1. This vertical shear in the jet peaks adds to the previously found at Equatorial latitudes (Sánchez-Lavega et al., Icarus, 187, 2007). Our analysis of direct wind measurements confirms the thermal-wind results recently presented by Fletcher et al. (Science 389, 5859, 2008), and formerly obtained by Conrath and Pirraglia (Icarus 53, 1983). Albedo measurements show that eastward jet peaks divide each peak region in two contrasted albedo bands in MT2. The bright equatorward side band is consistent with high or abundant aerosols transported by ascending motions, while the dark poleward side band indicates low or little aerosols probably depleted by descending motions. These results are fully consistent with the simple model proposed by Conrath and Pirraglia of jets decaying with altitude and related vertical and meridional circulation.

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