Vortices in Saturn's northern hemisphere (2008–2015) observed by Cassini ISS
Open accessAbstract
We use observations from the Imaging Science Subsystem on Cassini to create maps of Saturn's Northern Hemisphere (NH) from 2008 to 2015, a time period including a seasonal transition (i.e., Spring Equinox in 2009) and the 2010 giant storm. The processed maps are used to investigate vortices in the NH during the period of 2008-2015. All recorded vortices have diameters (east-west) smaller than 6000 km except for the largest vortex that developed from the 2010 giant storm. The largest vortex decreased its diameter from ~11000 km in 2011 to ~5000 km in 2015, and its average diameter is ~6500 km during the period of 2011-2015. The largest vortex lasts at least 4 years, which is much longer than the lifetimes of most vortices (less than 1 year). The largest vortex drifts to north, which can be explained by the beta drift effect. The number of vortices displays varying behaviors in the meridional direction, in which the 2010 giant storm significantly affects the generation and development of vortices in the middle latitudes (25-45°N). In the higher latitudes (45-90°N), the number of vortices also displays strong temporal variations. The solar flux and the internal heat do not directly contribute to the vortex activities, leaving the temporal variations of vortices in the higher latitudes (45-90°N) unexplained.
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The AV vortex appears in visible images as a dark elongated vortex with a faint ring of bright material that formed around 2013.
“The AV vortex appears in images acquired in the visible as a dark elongated vortex with a faint ring of bright material around it that formed around 2013 (Trammell et al., 2016) and is visible in Figure 2.”
From Saturn atmospheric dynamics one year after Cassini: Long-lived features and time variations in the drift of the Hexagon (2020) · cites this paper as Trammell et al., 2016
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Spiga, A., Guerlet, S., Millour, E., Indurain, M., Meurdesoif, Y., Cabanes, S., Dubos, T., Leconte, J., Boissinot, A., Lebonnois, S., et al. (2019) · Icarus · doi:10.1016/j.icarus.2019.07.011 · Cited by 55 · see citing works
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“Additionally, the CB2 maps can be compared with Cassini ISS maps of the North hemisphere published by (Trammell et al., 2016) from 2008 to 2015 establishing an extense time-line of the morphology of the main features visible in the planet.”
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“For comparison, the average aspect ratio of Saturn's anticyclones is ∼ 2.0 (Trammell et al., 2014, 2016; Vasavada et al., 2006).”
InfluentialThe Dynamics of the Atmosphere of Saturn
Sánchez-Lavega, A. (2026) · doi:10.1093/9780197851500.003.0342
- Authors
- Trammell, H. J., Li, L., Jiang, X., Pan, Y., Smith, M. A., Bering, E. A., Hörst, S. M., Vasavada, A. R., Ingersoll, A. P., Janssen, M. A., West, R. A., Porco, C. C., Li, C., Simon, A. A., & Baines, K. H.
- Affiliations
- University of Houston (US)
- Johns Hopkins University (US)
- Jet Propulsion Laboratory (US)
- California Institute of Technology (US)
- University of Wisconsin–Madison (US)
- Goddard Space Flight Center (US)
- Corresponding author
- Li, Liming
- ORCID
- Venue
- Journal of Geophysical Research Planets
- Publisher
- American Geophysical Union (AGU)
- Published
- 2016-09
- Volume
- 121
- Issue
- 9
- Pages
- 1814-1826
- ISSN
- 2169-9097 (ISSN-L)
- 2169-9100
- PMC
- PMC5886353
- OpenAlex
- W2519679294
- Cited by
- 16
- References
- 52
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 1 · 2024: 1 · 2022: 1 · 2020: 2 · 2019: 4 · 2018: 1 · 2017: 2 · 2016: 2
- FWCI
- 1.43
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Journal of Geophysical Research Planets (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- CaltechAUTHORS (California Institute of Technology) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- NASA ROSES Cassini Data Analysis
- Participating Scientists program
- Planetary Data Archiving, Restoration and Tools program
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Astronomy and Astrophysics › Astro and Planetary Science
- Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Astronomy and Astrophysics › Ionosphere and magnetosphere dynamics
- Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Astronomy and Astrophysics › Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies
- Keywords
- Saturn, vortices, Northern Hemisphere, spring equinox, vortex lifetime, vortex drift, meridional distribution, temporal variation, solar flux, internal heat, planetary atmospheres
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