CICLOPS: Cassini Imaging Central Laboratory for OPerationS
Seasons Conceal South Pole Storm

Seasons Conceal South Pole Storm
PIA 10572
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   The hurricane-like vortex encircling Saturn's south pole is still visible in the top left of this image as it slowly slips into darkness with the planet's changing seasons.

Many smaller storms are visible in the light of more northern latitudes.

The summer sun fully lit the south pole upon Cassini's arrival in 2004 (see PIA06467). But, as the planet continues its 29-year orbit, the south pole will eventually plunge into darkness and sunlight will begin to reveal instead features at the north pole, such as the hexagon (see PIA09188).

The winds of the towering south polar vortex blow at 550 kilometers (350 miles) per hour ( PIA08332 ) Clouds reaching altitudes of 30 to 75 kilometers (20 to 45 miles) cast shadows on those in the center.

The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on Dec. 3, 2008 using a spectral filter sensitive to wavelengths of infrared light centered at 752 nanometers. The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 546,000 kilometers (339,000 miles) from Saturn and at a Sun-Saturn-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 76 degrees. Image scale is 29 kilometers (18 miles) per pixel.

The Cassini Equinox Mission is a joint United States and European endeavor. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter was designed, developed and assembled at JPL. 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 Equinox Mission visit http://ciclops.org, http://www.nasa.gov/cassini and http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov.

Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute
Released: February 5, 2009 (PIA 10572)
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