A planetary-scale disturbance in a long-living three-vortex coupled system in Saturn's atmosphere
- Publication date
- Publisher
Abstract
The zonal wind profile of Saturn has a singular
structure in the latitude range 50ºN-65ºN
planetocentric, with a double peak that reaches
maximum zonal velocities close to 100ms-1[1]. A
survey of Cassini ISS images shows that a system of
three vortices formed in this latitudinal region in
2012 and has remained active until present,
confirming that vortices in Saturn can be long lived
[2]. In May 2015 a disturbance started to develop at
the location of the triple vortex. Since at the time
Cassini orbits were not favorable to the observation
of the region, we were granted Director Discretionary
Time of the Hubble Space Telescope to observe the
region before the perturbation faded away. Here we
report the dynamics and vertical structure of the
three-vortex system and of the disturbance that
developed at its location, based on HST and Cassini
images. We also present results of numerical models
to explain the stability of vortices in the region.Peer Reviewe