2012 European Planetary Science Congress. Madrid Yesterday

[Quark]

Hi All,

One of yesterdays sessions in Madrid at the 2012 EPSC dealt with the value of amateur data in Pro/Am collaborations. One of the papers and accompanying PPT presentation was titled "Saturn northern hemisphere's atmosphere after the 2010 / 2011 Great White Spot."

The lead author was Marc Delcoix with co-authors Georg Fischer and I.
Marc most generously included me as a co-author based on the quite large body of data that I had supplied of the Great Saturn Storm.

It is most interesting that this amateur data when plotted in a drift chart, seemed to present a rather solid case for the NNTZ spot from the March / April SED's out burst, being the recovery of the SED's source from 2011. This would be a the first time that a source has been identified as having recurring activity over more than 12 months.

As the presentation was yesterday, I have sort permission from Marc & Georg to attach links to the abstract and also the PPT.

I have attached a link to the abstract for the paper below.

http://www.astrosurf.com/delcroix/doc/EPSC2012/Delcroix%20M.%20et%20al.%202012-Saturn%20Northern%20hemisphere%27s% 20atmosphere%20after%20the%202010%2 0GWS%20%28abstract%29-EPSC2012%20Madrid%20September%2027% 202012.pdf (http://www.astrosurf.com/delcroix/doc/EPSC2012/Delcroix%20M.%20et%20al.%202012-Saturn%20Northern%20hemisphere%27s% 20atmosphere%20after%20the%202010%2 0GWS%20%28abstract%29-EPSC2012%20Madrid%20September%2027% 202012.pdf)

All of the images used in the PPT are mine other than one from Cassini.
The link to the PPT is below, be aware that the PPT is 5Mb.

http://www.astrosurf.com/delcroix/doc/EPSC2012/Delcroix%20M.%20et%20al.%202012-Saturn%20Northern%20hemisphere%27s% 20atmosphere%20after%20the%202010%2 0GWS-EPSC2012%20Madrid%20September%2027% 202012.ppt (http://www.astrosurf.com/delcroix/doc/EPSC2012/Delcroix%20M.%20et%20al.%202012-Saturn%20Northern%20hemisphere%27s% 20atmosphere%20after%20the%202010%2 0GWS-EPSC2012%20Madrid%20September%2027% 202012.ppt)

Hope this is of interest.

Regards
Trevor

[Shiraz]

wonderful outcome Trevor, thanks for posting.

Nice to see your work being recognised for adding substantially to the understanding of the dynamics of the outer planets. Regards Ray

[Quark]

Thanks Ray, reckon it is most excellent that amateur data is being used by professional Planetary Physicists to contribute to our understanding of the forces at work on Saturn & Jupiter.

The spot in the EZ on Saturn that you tracked earlier in the year is a case in point where the only record of that feature was from amateur data and of course there is the record of Anthony's "Bird Strike", which resulted in the HST being repositioned to image it as well as Anthony's impact fireball recorded when he visited me back in 2010.