Saturn's Equatorial Plumes after Five Years: Still Lurking under the Haze

Details Saturn's Equatorial Plumes after Five Years: Still Lurking under the Haze Saturn's Equatorial Plumes after Five Years: Still Lurking under the Haze

Oct 2010

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2010dps....42.1119m&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #42, #11.19; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 42, p.1021

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

Scientific paper

Numerous large, discrete cloud features have been observed for five years underneath Saturn's equatorial haze. They were clearly observed on three occasions - June 28, 2005, April 21, 2006 and May 1, 2010 - from a vantage point directly over the knife-edge of the rings, which reduced the ring obscuration of the disk to just ± 1 degrees of latitude centered at the equator. These features are seen only in the 5-micron thermal window which probes large-particle clouds down to the ˜ 4-bar level. In VIMS 5-micron imagery, which observes the warm glow of Saturn generated at depth, these deep clouds are observed in silhouette, appearing as dark features against the background glow. Spectral modeling indicates that they are primarily located in the 2-3 bar region. However, smaller particles of ammonia may be present overhead as a relatively small component of the 5-micron extinction. Indeed, the correlation of these features with the exceedingly high and thick equatorial haze layer indicates a plausible link: That these features involve vertical transport of gaseous condensibles to the upper troposphere forming the thick haze that is observed in images taken in reflected sunlight. The features are concentrated in two narrow, symmetrical cloudy zones between 4 and 8 degrees planetocentric latitude in both hemispheres, where they cover significant fractions, although varying, amounts of the total area of these latitudinal bands: ˜ 55% in 2005-2006 vs ˜ 28% in 2010. The mean area of the average feature was roughly constant over all three observations, with the longitudinal extent of the average feature in 2005-2006 decreasing ˜10% from 8 degrees ( 8000 km) to 7.1 degrees in 2010 while the mean latitudinal extent increased by ˜10% from 3.05 in 2005 vs 3.4 degrees in 2010.

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