CICLOPS: Cassini Imaging Central Laboratory for OPerationS
Clues in the Clouds

Clues in the Clouds
PIA 08212
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   Cassini images of Saturn's dynamic atmosphere, like this detailed view, will be combined with data from the spacecraft's two infrared-sensing experiments (VIMS and CIRS) to measure correlations among cloud features at many altitudes and infer heat flow across the planet.

The numerous small, white blobs generally indicate disturbed and turbulent regions.

The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on May 22, 2006 at a distance of approximately 331,000 kilometers (206,000 miles) from Saturn. The image was obtained using a spectral filter sensitive to wavelengths of infrared light centered at 752 nanometers. Image scale is 16 kilometers (10 miles) per pixel.

The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Cassini-Huygens mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The imaging team consists of scientists from the US, England, France, and Germany. The imaging operations center and team lead (Dr. C. Porco) are based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.

For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission, visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov and the Cassini imaging team home page, http://ciclops.org.

Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute
Released: July 3, 2006 (PIA 08212)
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