Strange Jets on Saturn’s Surface
March 5, 2013
Jet streams on Saturn can take unusual forms such as the curious hexagonal shape seen in this image taken by the Cassini spacecraft’s wide-angle camera. During February 2013, it was the Composite Infrared Spectrometer’s (CIRS) turn to collect data on this impressive feature, with SESDA 3 instrument operations staff helping to plan the observation, create the instrument commands, and process the data once it was collected. To ensure the science telemetry was processed as soon as it became available, operations staff devised a special out-of-sequence pipeline to produce the pointing information, calibrated spectra, and other higher level products that were needed in order to fully analyze this phenomenon. The CIRS science team is now using the data to determine quantities such as temperatures, wind speeds, and molecular constituents within the hexagon.
More about the image above can be found at:
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/photos/imagedetails/index.cfm?imageId=4736
