Related papers: Saturn's Polar Atmosphere
The Cassini spacecraft's last orbits directly sampled Saturn's thermosphere and revealed a much more chemically complex environment than previously believed. Observations from the Ion and Neutral Mass Spectrometer (INMS) aboard Cassini…
Remote sensing observations meet some limitations when used to study the bulk atmospheric composition of the giant planets of our solar system. A remarkable example of the superiority of in situ probe measurements is illustrated by the…
We analyse the potential vorticity of Saturn's polar regions, as it is a fundamental dynamical tracer that enables us to improve our understanding of the dynamics of these regions and their seasonal variability. In particular, we present…
Saturn's quasi-periodic planet-encircling storms are the largest convecting outbursts in the Solar System. The last eruption was in 1990. A new eruption started in December 2010 and presented the first-ever opportunity to observe such…
During the Grand Finale stage of the Cassini mission, organic-rich ring material was discovered to be flowing into Saturn's equatorial upper atmosphere at a surprisingly large rate. Through a series of photochemical models, we have examined…
For its beautiful rings, active atmosphere and mysterious magnetic field, Saturn is a fascinating planet. It also holds some of the keys to understanding the formation of our Solar System and the evolution of giant planets in general. While…
The Cassini mission unveiled the intense and diverse activity in Saturn's atmosphere: banded jets, waves, vortices, equatorial oscillations. To set the path towards a better understanding of those phenomena, we performed high-resolution…
We analyze data from the final two years of the Cassini mission to retrieve the distributions of methane, ethane, acetylene, ethylene, and benzene in Saturn's upper stratosphere and mesosphere from stellar occultations observed by the…
Some of the major discoveries of the recent Cassini-Huygens mission have put Titan and Enceladus firmly on the Solar System map. The mission has revolutionised our view of Solar System satellites, arguably matching their scientific…
Throughout 2017, the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) observed the northern far-ultraviolet aurorae of Saturn at northern solstice, during the Cassini Grand Finale. These conditions provided a complete viewing of the northern auroral region…
The lightning activity in Saturn's atmosphere has been monitored by Cassini for more than six years. The continuous observations of the radio signatures called SEDs (Saturn Electrostatic Discharges) combine favorably with imaging…
A clustering algorithm is applied to Cassini Imaging Science Subsystem continuum and methane band images of Saturns northern hemisphere to objectively classify regional albedo features and aid in their dynamical interpretation. The…
We investigate the long-term motion of Saturn's North-Pole Hexagon and the structure of its associated eastward jet, using Cassini ISS and ground-based images from 2008 to 2014. We show that both are persistent features that have survived…
The Cassini mission entered the Grand Finale phase in April 2017 and executed 22.5 highly inclined, close-in orbits around Saturn before diving into the planet on September 15th 2017. Here we present our analysis of the Cassini Grand Finale…
In this paper we will summarize some of the most important results of the Cassini mission concerning the satellites of Saturn. Given the long duration of the mission, the complexity of the payload onboard the Cassini Orbiter and the amount…
The last 22.5 orbits of the Cassini mission brought the spacecraft to less than 3000 km from Saturn's 1-bar surface. These close encounters offered an unprecedented view of Saturn's magnetic field, including contributions from the internal…
Far-IR 16-1000 $\mu$m spectra of Saturn's hydrogen-helium continuum measured by Cassini's Composite Infrared Spectrometer (CIRS) are inverted to construct a near-continuous record of upper tropospheric (70-700 mbar) temperatures and…
Saturn's axial tilt produces seasons in a similar way as on Earth. Both the stratospheric temperature and composition are affected by this latitudinally varying insolation along the seasons. The thermal structure is controlled and regulated…
Cassini/ISS imagery and Cassini/VIMS spectral imaging observations from 0.35 to 5.12 microns show that between 2012 and 2017 the region poleward of the Saturn's northern hexagon changed from dark blue/green to a moderately brighter gold…
We use the clathrate hydrate trapping theory to calculate the enrichments in O, N, S, Xe, Ar and Kr compared to solar in Saturn's atmosphere. For this, we calibrate our calculations using two different carbon abundance determinations that…