Cassini/CIRS Observations of Saturn's "Storm Alley"

Details Cassini/CIRS Observations of Saturn's "Storm Alley" Cassini/CIRS Observations of Saturn's "Storm Alley"

Oct 2010

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2010dps....42.1117h&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #42, #11.17; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 42, p.1020

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

1

Scientific paper

In the Voyager era storms on Saturn were observed predominantly in the northern hemisphere; however, in recent years storm activity has been confined to a narrow range of latitudes referred to as "storm alley” ( 40°S planetographic latitude). Throughout Cassini's prime mission storms have been detected by two independent instruments: ISS through dayside images and RPWS using radio emissions from Saturn Electrostatic Discharges (SED's) (Dyudina et al. 2007). Analysis of these storms indicates that the cloud tops are in the 200 - 500mbar altitude range. During Saturn's Equinox, in August 2009, ISS imaged lightning on the night side in storm alley when ring-shine was at a minimum (Dyudina et al. 2010). This study indicates that lightning may have originated as deep as the water cloud.
Recently, Cassini/CIRS was targeted at storm alley while a storm, originally detected by amateurs, was ongoing (March 2010). Phosphine can be used as a tracer of vertical transport because it is a disequilibrium species that falls off with altitude in the upper troposphere. CIRS can measure temperature and phosphine abundance independently in the altitude range where these cloud tops occur. Early analysis of these data shows stronger phosphine absorption at storm longitudes. This is an indication that powerful updrafts were dredging material upward into the upper troposphere. The results of the analysis of the March 2010 CIRS observations of storm alley will be presented.
References:
Dyudina, U.A. et al., 2010. Geophys. Res. Letters 37, L09205.
Dyudina, U.A. et al., 2007. Icarus 190, 545-555.

Affiliated with

Also associated with

No associations

Rating

Cassini/CIRS Observations of Saturn's "Storm Alley" does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.

If you have personal experience with Cassini/CIRS Observations of Saturn's "Storm Alley", we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Cassini/CIRS Observations of Saturn's "Storm Alley" will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

Comments { 0 }

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-1121655