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Strong Temporal Variation Over One Saturnian Year: From Voyager to CassiniHere we report the combined spacecraft observations of Saturn acquired over one Saturnian year (approximately 29.5 Earth years), from the Voyager encounters (1980-81) to the new Cassini reconnaissance (2009-10). The combined observations reveal a strong temporal increase of tropic temperature (approximately 10 Kelvins) around the tropopause of Saturn (i.e., 50 mbar), which is stronger than the seasonal variability (approximately a few Kelvins). We also provide the first estimate of the zonal winds at 750 mbar, which is close to the zonal winds at 2000 mbar. The quasi-consistency of zonal winds between these two levels provides observational support to a numerical suggestion inferring that the zonal winds at pressures greater than 500 mbar do not vary significantly with depth. Furthermore, the temporal variation of zonal winds decreases its magnitude with depth, implying that the relatively deep zonal winds are stable with time.
Document ID
20140010935
Acquisition Source
Goddard Space Flight Center
Document Type
Reprint (Version printed in journal)
External Source(s)
Authors
Li, Liming
(Houston Univ. Houston, TX, United States)
Achterberg, Richard K.
(Maryland Univ. College Park, MD, United States)
Conrath, Barney J.
(Cornell Univ. Ithaca, NY, United States)
Gierasch, Peter J.
(Cornell Univ. Ithaca, NY, United States)
Smith, Mark A.
(Houston Univ. Houston, TX, United States)
Simon-Miller, Amy A.
(NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, MD, United States)
Nixon, Conor A.
(NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, MD, United States)
Orton, Glenn S.
(Jet Propulsion Lab., California Inst. of Tech. Pasadena, CA, United States)
Flasar, F. Michael
(NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, MD, United States)
Jiang, Xun
(Houston Univ. Houston, TX, United States)
Baines, Kevin H.
(Jet Propulsion Lab., California Inst. of Tech. Pasadena, CA, United States)
Morales-Juberias, Raul
(New Mexico Inst. of Mining and Technology Socorro, NM, United States)
Ingersoll, Andrew P.
(California Inst. of Tech. Pasadena, CA, United States)
Vasavada, Ashwin R.
(Jet Propulsion Lab., California Inst. of Tech. Pasadena, CA, United States)
DelGenio, Anthony D.
(NASA Goddard Inst. for Space Studies New York, NY, United States)
West, Robert A.
(Jet Propulsion Lab., California Inst. of Tech. Pasadena, CA, United States)
Ewald, Shawn P.
(California Inst. of Tech. Pasadena, CA, United States)
Date Acquired
August 22, 2014
Publication Date
August 12, 2013
Publication Information
Publication: Scientific Reports
Publisher: Natural Publishing Group
Volume: 3
Subject Category
Lunar And Planetary Science And Exploration
Report/Patent Number
GSFC-E-DAA-TN10861
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Public Use Permitted.
Keywords
Cassini
Saturnian Year
Voyager
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