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Hi Warren,
It is highly unlikely that Saturn will develop a permanent band such as Jupiter's.
As Ron has already mentioned, Saturn is a net emitter of energy.
The Current storm on Saturn more or less encircles the planet but we need to understand what is fueling this phenomena.
Saturn has a hydrogen rich atmosphere with traces of methane, ammonia & water vapor. There are 3 distinct cloud layers at Saturn that extend to a depth of about 200 klm.
There is an upper cloud layer of ammonia ice crystals, an intermediate cloud layer of ammonium hydro sulfide ice crystals with a lower layer of water ice crystals. At times, due to a poorly understood internal heat source, material from the lower water ice cloud layer is forced into rapid vertical motion. This results in lightning just as is the case on Earth. This material continues to surge upward, punching through the upper ammonia ice cloud layer and mushrooming over the top. This is the white material that we can image. This material that has been dredged up from great depth then interacts with jetstreams which are circulating this material around the planet. The active part of this storm, that is the region where the Cassini RPWS (Radio & Plasma Wave Science) instrument is recording SED's (Saturn Electrostatic Discharge) or lightning is limited to about the first 50 degrees longitude back from the head of the storm and there is little or no lightning associated with the rest of the tail of the storm.
This particular storm is unprecedented at Saturn and is likely the largest, brightest and most active electrical storm recorded on any planet within our Solar System.
I have been involved in tracking these SED's related storm for the Cassini RPWS team since Jan 2008 and in that time some storms have had very short lives while others have lasted for months. When the level of SED's does drop off and stop the supply of material being dredged up will cease and the white plumes that we see will dissipate and Saturns atmosphere will return to its normal bland look.
Regards
Trevor
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