Saturn and the Peculiar Equatorial Storm, Most Intense Jet Stream in the Solar System

“In June last year, using a simple 28-cm telescope belonging to the Aula EspaZio Gela (Space Lecture Room), we discovered the presence of a white spot on Saturn’s equator that was moving at speeds of 1,600 km/h, a speed that had not been observed on Saturn since 1980,” said Agustín Sánchez-Lavega, lead author of the work and also director of the Aula EspaZio Gela and Planetary Sciences Group of the UPV/EHU-University of the Basque Country. Observations obtained a month later by members of the Planetary Sciences Group using the PlanetCam camera developed by this team and fitted to the 2.2-m telescope at the Calar Alto Observatory in Almería (Spain) enabled the speed of this atmospheric structure to be confirmed. Images obtained by observers in other countries using small telescopes were also used in the study.

The researchers were able to study the phenomenon in detail after obtaining observation time of the Hubble Space Telescope granted by its director in order to capture images of Saturn at a time when the Cassini probe in orbit around it had poor vision of the planet. “It is very difficult to obtain observation time in Hubble because it is highly competitive, but its high quality images have been decisive in the research,” explained Sánchez-Lavega.

1,650 km/h winds

By studying the movement of the clouds that formed the white spot (an enormous storm of about 7,000 km) and of those present in its surrounding areas, the researchers were able to obtain new, valuable information about the structure of the planet’s huge equatorial jet stream. Furthermore, the researchers established the heights reached by the different atmospheric structures and determined that the winds increase dramatically the lower they go. They reach speeds of 1,100 km/h in the upper atmosphere but achieve up to 1,650 km/h at a depth of about 150 km. Furthermore, while the deep wind is stable, in the upper atmosphere the speed and width of the equatorial stream are highly changeable, perhaps due to the seasonal insolation cycle on Saturn, and their intensity is increased by the changing shadowing of the rings above the equator.

Map of Saturn’s equator showing its cloud formations and equatorial storm (White Spot). Superimposed can be seen the profiles of the winds at two altitudes separated by about 50 km, deep ones (green outline) and middle ones (red outline)

There is another significant meteorological phenomenon above the planet’s equator and which could affect the winds: the Semi-annual Oscillation (SAO), which occurs about 50 km above the cloud deck and which causes the temperatures to oscillate and the winds to change direction and strength from East to West. And if the complexity of Saturn’s equatorial meteorology were not enough, it is at these latitudes where the so-called Great White Spot developed three times, in 1876, 1933 and 1990; this is a gigantic storm that manages to go all the way round the planet and which has only been seen on six occasions during the last one hundred and fifty years. The study by the Planetary Sciences Group reports that this gigantic storm is another of the agents of change in the equatorial jet stream.

“All these phenomena occur on a different scale to a certain extent on our own planet. So by studying them in this way in other worlds in totally different conditions we can make progress in understanding and modelling them,” he concluded.

The Aula EspaZio Gela and its Astronomical Observatory are located in the Faculty of Engineering in Bilbao and that is where the Master’s in Space Science and Technology is run. The activities of the Aula EspaZio Gela are funded by the Chartered Provincial Council of Bizkaia and those of the Planetary Sciences Group and its research by the UPV/EHU (UFI), Basque Government, MINECO and the European Union (H2020).