Saturn Storm (Dec 2010 to 2013)

[Astronuc]

A large storm has been studied since December 2010.

New research indicates the storm is stronger than first thought. Associated with the storm is a huge volume of ethylene, with an amount roughly 100 times through possible on Saturn. The source of the ethylene is unknown.

Observations by NASA's Cassini spacecraft — which first detected the tempest in December 2010 — show that the enormous Saturn storm sent temperatures in the planet's stratosphere soaring 150 degrees Fahrenheit (66 degrees Celsius) above normal, according to a new study.

"This temperature spike is so extreme it's almost unbelievable, especially in this part of Saturn's atmosphere, which typically is very stable," study lead author Brigette Hesman, of the University of Maryland and NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., said in a statement.

. . . .

NASA's Cassini Sees Burp at Saturn After Large Storm
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2012-335

http://www.esa.int/esaSC/SEMLPIMFL8H_index_0.html

 

[Astronuc]

NASA's Cassini Watches Storm Choke on Its Own Tail - 01.31.13
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/whycassini/cassini20130131.html

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2013-040#2

Earth's hurricanes feed off the energy of warm water and leave a cold-water wake. This storm in Saturn's northern hemisphere also feasted off warm "air" in the gas giant's atmosphere. The storm, first detected on Dec. 5, 2010, and tracked by Cassini's radio and plasma wave subsystem and imaging cameras, erupted around 33 degrees north latitude. Shortly after the bright, turbulent head of the storm emerged and started moving west, it spawned a clockwise-spinning vortex that drifted much more slowly. Within months, the storm wrapped around the planet at that latitude, stretching about 190,000 miles (300,000 kilometers) in circumference, thundering and throwing lightning along the way.
. . . .
"This thunder-and-lightning storm on Saturn was a beast," said Kunio Sayanagi, the paper's lead author and a Cassini imaging team associate at Hampton University in Virginia. "The storm maintained its intensity for an unusually long time. The storm head itself thrashed for 201 days, and its updraft erupted with an intensity that would have sucked out the entire volume of Earth's atmosphere in 150 days. And it also created the largest vortex ever observed in the troposphere of Saturn, expanding up to 7,500 miles [12,000 kilometers] across."