Saturn Temperatures, Winds, and Composition from Cassini CIRS

Details Saturn Temperatures, Winds, and Composition from Cassini CIRS Saturn Temperatures, Winds, and Composition from Cassini CIRS

Dec 2004

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2004agufm.p44a..03f&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2004, abstract #P44A-03

Physics

5704 Atmospheres: Composition And Chemistry, 5707 Atmospheres: Structure And Dynamics

Scientific paper

We summarize CIRS observations of Saturn's southern hemisphere during the approach phase and early part of the Cassini tour. Stratospheric temperatures near 1 mbar increase from the equator to the south pole by 20 K. It is approximately three saturnian weeks after southern summer solstice, suggesting an efficient radiative response to insolation. At the tropopause (100 mbar), the equator-pole temperature contrast is more subdued, consistent with a larger radiative relaxation time. Zonal winds have been derived from the observed temperature field. The limited latitude resolution the early CIRS observations (8 degrees) precludes resolving the mid-latitude jets, but at low latitudes there is a large decrease (~140 m/s) of the zonal winds above the cloud tops to the upper stratosphere. The CIRS spectral range (7 micrometers - 1 mm) encompasses the signatures of a panoply of compounds, including hydrocarbons, oxygen compounds, phosphine, ammonia, and isotopes of carbon, nitrogen, and hydrogen. The extension of coverage to submillimeter wavelengths offers a unique capability not fully realized before. A brief preview of CIRS observations in the next few months of the Cassini tour will be presented.

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