Saturn's massive northern storm is 500 times larger than its southern rivals
In short: A colossal atmospheric disturbance is churning through Saturn's northern hemisphere. This massive storm is the most intense ever recorded by NASA's spacecraft. It covers an area 500 times larger than the biggest southern storms seen during the Cassini mission, growing from a tiny speck into a planet-circling giant.
The storm, observed by NASA's Cassini spacecraft, is the most intense and largest ever recorded on the planet by Voyager or Cassini.
The phenomenon is known as a Great White Spot, a series of periodic storms that appear roughly every 28.5 to 30 Earth years. This cycle aligns closely with Saturn's orbital period of 29.4 years, suggesting the storms are seasonal. They typically appear in late northern summer when the hemisphere tilts most toward the Sun, though the 2010–11 instance appeared earlier than usual, shortly after the August 2009 equinox.
The sheer scale of the 2010–11 storm is staggering. In just three weeks, it grew from a small white spot of about 800 miles north-to-south to a latitudinal extent of 6,000 miles. Its longitudinal reach spanned about 11,000 miles, with a tail extending nearly 62,000 miles—covering almost one-third of the planet. Some previous Great White Spots reached even greater latitudinal sizes of up to 12,000 miles.
Scientists have tracked these events since the late 19th century. Notable observations include Asaph Hall in 1876 and Will Hay in 1933. Cassini data revealed complex chemistry within the clouds, including a loss of acetylene, an increase in phosphine, and an unusual temperature drop in the storm's center. By 2012, the storm subsided, emitting a "belch" of heat and ethylene from two merged hotspots.
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Sources
- Summary by Intellect · source: Spotting Saturn's Northern Storm - NASA Science
- Also: Great White Spot
- Also: Great White Spot | storm system, Saturn | Britannica
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