I apologize for getting so far behind with my processing. Been a lot of excitement around here over the last week.
The Flea3 allows me to capture data at much higher frame rates which means my files are very large and take a lot longer to process.
I thought my Jup's were more important to process first from June 3rd following on from Birds fireball, so here are my results from the early evening of June 3rd with Saturn.
The seeing was very good, at times exceptional. There is a chain of SED's related storms in the STrZ, they appear as quite distinct white spots. There is also a quite distinct white cloud in the SEB and some large scale features in the EZn. These features show up very nicely in my animation.
I have posted 1 RGB plus an animation of all 5 of the RGB's covering the transit of the storms.
Thanks for looking
Regards
Trevor
PS; now I need to start processing this mornings Jupiter data.
Wow - looks like the Flea is humming very nicely, even for initial pics like these
Thanks Rob, the Flea certainly has been extremely active. Actually, due to the number of Fleas in my back yard this last week, " I would think the highest concentration in Australia" we might need some Flea repellent. The first night that Bird was here we did have a large amount of Flea repellent turn up, in the form of cloud
Quote:
Originally Posted by edwardsdj
Awesome images of Saturn!
How could there be so many storms in a line except for an impact?
Thanks for your comment.
These storms on Saturn occur in a very special region that has been dubbed "Storm Alley" by the Cassini scientists. At this latitude, about 38 degrees South, the wind speeds have dropped off, from the equator, enough for large scale storms to survive. Since the arrival at Saturn in 2004 of the Cassini space craft, one of the instruments onboard,(the RPWS Radio & Plasma Wave Science instrument) has recorded outbursts of SED's (Saturn Electrostatic Discharge) or lightning.
At Saturn there are 3 distinct cloud layers in the atmosphere. An upper layer of Ammonia ice crystal clouds, an intermediate layer of Ammoniumhydrosulphide ice crystals and a lower layer of water ice crystals.
From time to time a poorly understood heat source deep within the planet causes material from the water ice crystal cloud layer into rapid vertical motion. A column of material punches upward, this rapid vertical motion cause lightning which is detected by the RPWS instrument on Cassini. This column of material punches through the upper ammonia ice cloud layer and mushrooms out and we see this as the white spots that we image.
Hope this helps you to understand what we are seeing and that these spots have nothing to do with impacts.
Quote:
Originally Posted by michaellxv
Excellent detail Trevor. Is that a moon I see moving in from the west in the animation?
Thanks very much Michaell, yes, Rhea is above the rings to the west and Tethys is further to the west and in line with the rings but is very difficult to see.
These images just keep getting better Trev.
The professor that was in charge georg if i can remember is he still in Austria or has he moved on again?
Cheers Kev.
Excellent images Trevor, you've got to be happy with that. That storm system keeps on changing every time we look at it...
cheers, Bird
Thanks very much Bird, that means a lot to me, coming from the Master. What an amazing time it has been , incredibly stimulating and most rewarding. Just wondering if you will be booking the same spot for next years Jupiter impact?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kevnool
These images just keep getting better Trev.
The professor that was in charge georg if i can remember is he still in Austria or has he moved on again?
Cheers Kev.
Thanks very much Kev, Georg is still at the Austrian Academy of Sciences and last year was awarded funding for another three years of research into atmospheric lightning at Saturn. Both Bird and I continue to supply data to Georg.
Trevor
That is phenomenal image quality. It is quite amazing that you can routinely take pictures of changing local weather patterns on a planet that far away. Thanks for sharing.
Trevor
That is phenomenal image quality. It is quite amazing that you can routinely take pictures of changing local weather patterns on a planet that far away. Thanks for sharing.