Engineering Papers⌕ Search
Home/Archive/NASA NTRS

NASA NTRS · 20210002369

Saturn Ring Observer

Spilker, T.
View original source ↗Export metadata ↓

Abstract

Scientists studying planetary ring systems and planetary system formation have long wanted close-up (a few km) observations of Saturn's rings to answer fundamental questions about ring particle characteristics and behavior.

Explore related subjects

SaturnRingplanetarysystem

Keep this discovery

Explore connections, maps & timelines

BibTeXRIS

Spilker, T.. 2000-05-02. Saturn Ring Observer. https://ntrs.nasa.gov/citations/20210002369

Cite the original work for its findings. Save a collection to share your selection of sources.

KEEP EXPLORING

Related reports

NASA NTRS2022

Compositional Measurements of Saturn's Upper Atmosphere and Rings From Cassini INMS: An Extended Analysis of Measurements From Cassini's Grand Finale Orbits

The Cassini spacecraft's final orbits sampled Saturn's atmosphere and returned surprisingly complex mass spectra from the Ion and Neutral Mass Spectrometer (INMS). Signal returned from the instrument included native Saturn species, as expected, as well as a significant amount of signal attributed to vaporized ices and higher mass organics believed to be owing into Saturn's atmosphere from the rings. In this paper, we present an in-depth compositional analysis of the mass spectra returned from Cassini's last few orbits. We use a mass spectral deconvolution algorithm designed specifically to handle the complexities involved with unit resolution spaceflight mass spectrometry data to determine the relative abundance of species detected in the observations. We calculate the downward external flux and mass deposition rates of ring volatile species into Saturn's atmosphere and conclude that during these observations ring material was being deposited into Saturn's equatorial region at a rate on the order of 10(exp 4) kg/s.

Saturn↗
NASA NTRS2022

Compositional Measurements of Saturn's Upper Atmosphere and Rings From Cassini INMS: An Extended Analysis of Measurements From Cassini's Grand Finale Orbits

The Cassini spacecraft's final orbits sampled Saturn's atmosphere and returned surprisingly complex mass spectra from the Ion and Neutral Mass Spectrometer (INMS). Signal returned from the instrument included native Saturn species, as expected, as well as a significant amount of signal attributed to vaporized ices and higher mass organics believed to be flowing into Saturn's atmosphere from the rings. In this paper, we present an in-depth compositional analysis of the mass spectra returned from Cassini's last few orbits. We use a mass spectral deconvolution algorithm designed specifically to handle the complexities involved with unit resolution spaceflight mass spectrometry data to determine the relative abundance of species detected in the observations. We calculate the downward external flux and mass deposition rates of ring volatile species into Saturn's atmosphere and conclude that during these observations ring material was being deposited into Saturn's equatorial region at a rate on the order of 10(exp 4) kg/s.

Saturn↗
NASA NTRS2020

Tropopause and lower stratosphere winds and eddy fluxes on Saturn as seen by Cassini imaging

An automated cloud feature tracking algorithm is applied to 2004 Cassini Imaging Science Subsystem images of Saturn's southern hemisphere and equatorial region (5°N-70°S) in continuum, methane band, and ultraviolet filters to derive zonal wind profiles and eddy momentum fluxes from the middle troposphere cloud tops to the lower stratosphere. Zonal winds in the eastward and westward jets decrease in strength from the cloud tops (≳ 1 bar) to the upper troposphere (~60–600 mb), but do not measurably change in strength from the upper troposphere to the tropopause (~60 mb) to the lower stratosphere (≲ 60 mb). A narrow (~3°N-3°S) equatorial jet is detected at the cloud tops, but a previously reported strengthening of this jet from the cloud top level to the upper troposphere/tropopause region cannot be verified due to an absence of easily trackable features at the equator and conflicting results for the few features available. Eddy momentum fluxes on either side of the jet cores outside the tropics (poleward of ~20°S) converge into the eastward jets and diverge from the westward jets. Whether the flux convergence into the eastward jets weakens from the visible cloud level to the upper troposphere cannot be determined for this limited time period, but the eddy convergence appears to increase from the troposphere to the lower stratosphere. The divergence of the eddy flux from the westward jets seems to more clearly increase from the middle to the upper troposphere to the stratosphere, but this does not explain the slight weakening of the westward jets with height.

Saturn↗