Interaction of Saturn’s Hexagon with convective storms
| Autor: | K. Ahrens-Velásquez, Manel Soria, M. H. Wong, T. del Río-Gaztelurrutia, Amy Simon, Enrique Garcia-Melendo, T. Barry, C. Foster, R. Hueso, Agustín Sánchez-Lavega, C. Go |
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| Přispěvatelé: | Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya. Departament de Física, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya. TUAREG - Turbulence and Aerodynamics in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Research Group |
| Jazyk: | angličtina |
| Rok vydání: | 2021 |
| Předmět: |
010504 meteorology & atmospheric sciences
Saturn (rocket family) Storms Física [Àrees temàtiques de la UPC] Library science 010502 geochemistry & geophysics 01 natural sciences Saturn (Planet) Geophysics Spitzer Space Telescope 13. Climate action Saturn (Planeta) Political science Convective storm detection General Earth and Planetary Sciences media_common.cataloged_instance European union Computer resources Tempestes 0105 earth and related environmental sciences media_common |
| Zdroj: | UPCommons. Portal del coneixement obert de la UPC Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) Geophysical Research Letters |
| Popis: | In March 2020 a convective storm erupted at planetographic latitude 76°N in the southern flank of Saturn’s long-lived hexagonal wave. The storm reached a zonal size of 4,500 km and developed a tail extending zonally 33,000 km. Two new short-lived storms erupted in May in the hexagon edge. These storms formed after the convective storms that took place in 2018 in nearby latitudes. There were no noticeable changes in the zonal profile of Saturn's polar winds in 2018-2020. Measurements of the longitude position of the vertices of the hexagon throughout this period yield a value for its period of rotation equal to that of System III of radio-rotation measured at the time of Voyagers. We report changes in the hexagon clouds related to the activity of the storms. Our study reinforces the idea that Saturn’s hexagon is a well rooted structure with a possible direct relationship with the bulk rotation of the planet. This work has been supported by the Spanish project AYA2015-65041-P and PID2019-109467GB444 I00 (MINECO/FEDER, UE) and Grupos Gobierno Vasco IT1366-19. EGM is Serra Hunter Fellow atUPC. This work has used data acquired from the NASA/ESA HST Space Telescope, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under NASA contract NAS 5-26555. These HST observations are associated with program GO/DD 15262. EGM, MS, KAV and ASL thankfully acknowledge the computer resources at Mare Nostrum and the technical support provided by Barcelona Supercomputing Center (AECT-2019-2-0006). We thank all the observers who have contributed with their images to the monitoring of the atmospheric activity on Saturn during the years 2019 and 2020 and whose list and images can be found in the ALPO452 Japan and PVOL databases. Part of the amateur observations analyzed were obtained through a collaboration with Europlanet 2024 RI. Europlanet 2024 RI has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement No 871149. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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