[Quark (Trevor)]

Originally Posted by Irish stargazer

Wow! That is some storm. Wonderful images Trevor.

Thanks very much John.

Originally Posted by astroron

Trevor, would the Ammonia Cloud in 1990 be classed as a Storm as This event reminds me of what the event in 1990 looked like
Petty cool images and the animation is superb
cheers

Thanks Ron, there are 3 distinct cloud layers on Saturn. An upper cloud layer of Ammonia ice crystals, an intermediate cloud layer of Ammonium hydro sulfide ice crystals and a lower cloud layer of Water ice crystals. These 3 layers extend over about the first 200km.

From time to time there have been long lived cloud features at various latitudes on Saturn, however these are SED's ( Saturn Electrostatic Discharge)...lightning, related storm clouds. This material came from the Water ice cloud layer when some poorly understood heat source deeper within the planets forced material into rapid vertical motion resulting in lightning. This material continued upward, punching through the upper cloud layer and mushrooming over the top, this is the white cloud that we now see.

Originally Posted by RobF

Wow, that sure is a beast! Any wild guesses how long it might be visible for Trevor?

Thanks Rob, I have been involved in tracking these SED's related storms since Jan 2008, the longest lived this far has been approx 8 months.

Originally Posted by John Hothersall

Another good trawl and great to see the storm moving.

John.

Thanks John, yes, I think animations provide a better feel for the dynamics of the storm and atmospheric activity in general.

Originally Posted by h0ughy

that is big - wonderful work

Thanks very much Houghy.

Originally Posted by Clayton

Great sequence and nice to see an animation.

Thanks Rob.

Originally Posted by higginsdj

Wow - very cool.

Thanks very much David.

Originally Posted by Lester

Thanks for the wonderful view Trevor, that storm is huge. All the best.

Thanks very much Lester.

Originally Posted by Cosmic

Wow ....I mean that's an amazing compilation of images. Thanks for sharing Trevor.

Thanks very much Daniel

Originally Posted by Rob_K

Superb job Trevor, what a storm!!!

Cheers -

Thanks very much Rob.

Originally Posted by multiweb

Very cool stuff Trevor.

Thanks very much Marc, a super Christmas present for planetary imagers I reckon.

Originally Posted by spacezebra

Excellent Trevor

I have been following the storm via http://www.ciclops.org/view_event/15...42_Raw_Preview

Cheers Petra d.

Thanks Petra, both Bird and I support the Cassini RPWS (Radio & Plasma Wave Science) team with our data, they are part of the Cassini team as is CICLOPS.

Originally Posted by bird

Excellent images and animation Trev - good to see you had some clear skies!

cheers, Bird

Thanks very much Bird, just cannot seem to snag the seeing required to get some really hi res data on this , yet.