The December 2010 outbreak of a major storm in Saturn's atmosphere: Observations and models

Details The December 2010 outbreak of a major storm in Saturn's atmosphere: Observations and models The December 2010 outbreak of a major storm in Saturn's atmosphere: Observations and models

Oct 2011

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2011epsc.conf..400s&link_type=abstract

EPSC-DPS Joint Meeting 2011, held 2-7 October 2011 in Nantes, France. http://meetings.copernicus.org/epsc-dps2011, p.400

Computer Science

Scientific paper

On December 5, 2010, a major storm erupted in Saturn's northern hemisphere at a planetographic latitude of 37.7 deg [1]. These phenomena are known as "Great White Spots" (GWS) and they have been observed once per Saturn year since the first case confidently reported in 1876. The last event occurred at Saturn's Equator in 1990 [2]. A GWS differs from similar smaller-scale storms in that it generates a planetary-scale disturbance that spreads zonally spanning the whole latitude band. Studies of the 1990 case indicated that the storm produced a long-term substantial change in the cloud and haze structure around the tropopause level, and in the equatorial winds. We report on the evolution and motions of the new GWS and its associated disturbance during the months following the outbreak, based mainly on high quality images obtained in the visual range submitted to the International Outer Planet Watch PVOL database [3], with the 1m telescope at Pic-du-Midi Observatory and 2.2 m telescope at Calar Alto Observatory. The high temporal sampling and coverage allowed us to study the dynamics of the GWS in detail and the multi-wavelength observations provide information on its cloud top structure. We present non-linear simulations using the EPIC code of the evolution of the potential vorticity generated by an impulsive and localized Gaussian heat pulse that compare extraordinary well to the observed cloud field evolution.

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