Southern Storm, Visible in Amateur Scopes |
Southern Storm, Visible in Amateur Scopes |
Feb 14 2006, 06:14 PM
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#1
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Member Group: Members Posts: 531 Joined: 24-August 05 Member No.: 471 |
Amateur photo:
--- The storm's north-south dimension is about 3,500 kilometers (2,175 miles); it is located at minus 36 degrees (planetocentric) latitude and 168 degrees west longitude. --- Cassini (reprojected view): - http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA07789 - Storm at Night (Reprojected View) - http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA07788 - Storm at Night (Limb View) - http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA02166 - Lightning Sounds from Saturn (Audio) -------------------- - blue_scape / Nico -
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Feb 14 2006, 06:58 PM
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#2
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 2454 Joined: 8-July 05 From: NGC 5907 Member No.: 430 |
Glad to know that Cassini is finally studying it! Rather unusual looking
storm structure, or at least it seems so for us Earth-bound creatures. An earlier discussion and collection of amateur images of the storm may be found here: http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.p...indpost&p=38755 -------------------- "After having some business dealings with men, I am occasionally chagrined,
and feel as if I had done some wrong, and it is hard to forget the ugly circumstance. I see that such intercourse long continued would make one thoroughly prosaic, hard, and coarse. But the longest intercourse with Nature, though in her rudest moods, does not thus harden and make coarse. A hard, sensible man whom we liken to a rock is indeed much harder than a rock. From hard, coarse, insensible men with whom I have no sympathy, I go to commune with the rocks, whose hearts are comparatively soft." - Henry David Thoreau, November 15, 1853 |
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Feb 15 2006, 09:39 AM
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#3
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Member Group: Members Posts: 531 Joined: 24-August 05 Member No.: 471 |
Dragon Storm part two?
--- The storm is in a similar location to the "Dragon" storm reported last year - http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap050225.html - so it may be a reemergence of that storm or a new storm. According to the RPWS data, the new storm is generating lightning flashes several times more frequently than the original Dragon storm, and the lightning is as much as five times stronger. At approximately the size of the continental U.S., the storm dwarfs terrestrial thunderstorms. Apparently, it is much fiercer as well -- radio signals from its lightning are more than 1,000 times greater than similar radio static from terrestrial storms. --- - http://www.nasa.gov/vision/universe/solars...turn_storm.html - Volunteers Help NASA Track Return of the Dragon - http://spaceflightnow.com/cassini/060214lightning.html - Cassini orbiter listens to lightning storm on Saturn -------------------- - blue_scape / Nico -
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Feb 15 2006, 09:52 AM
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#4
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Member Group: Members Posts: 356 Joined: 12-March 05 Member No.: 190 |
First thought: OH NOES!! Second thought after opening: Ohhhh Saturn!
Topic title is quite alarming if you don't read the fourm location first! |
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Feb 15 2006, 06:26 PM
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#5
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 2454 Joined: 8-July 05 From: NGC 5907 Member No.: 430 |
Science/Astronomy:
* Biggest Lightning Storm Ever Recorded on Saturn http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/0602..._lightning.html Scientists are tracking the strongest lighting storm ever detected at Saturn. The storm is larger than the continental United States, with electrical activity 1,000 times stronger than the lightning on Earth. -------------------- "After having some business dealings with men, I am occasionally chagrined,
and feel as if I had done some wrong, and it is hard to forget the ugly circumstance. I see that such intercourse long continued would make one thoroughly prosaic, hard, and coarse. But the longest intercourse with Nature, though in her rudest moods, does not thus harden and make coarse. A hard, sensible man whom we liken to a rock is indeed much harder than a rock. From hard, coarse, insensible men with whom I have no sympathy, I go to commune with the rocks, whose hearts are comparatively soft." - Henry David Thoreau, November 15, 1853 |
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Guest_Sunspot_* |
Feb 17 2006, 06:47 PM
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#6
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Guests |
I think this could be another shot of it:
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/imag...eiImageID=63378 |
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Feb 19 2006, 10:29 PM
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#7
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Member Group: Members Posts: 200 Joined: 20-November 05 From: Mare Desiderii Member No.: 563 |
Quoting from the discussion in the Northern Clouds thread:
QUOTE (JRehling @ Feb 12 2006, 03:55 AM) QUOTE (JTN @ Feb 11 2006, 10:25 PM) How much can the Cassini mission design adapt to observe short-term "targets of opportunity" like this? Limited attitude control fuel is probably what will end Cassini's lifetime, so every pointing action cuts into the lifetime. But one act of pointing wouldn't be a huge expenditure. For imaging a large storm on Saturn, there should be plenty of time during near-apoapsis to do so. The schedule at periapsis would be more crowded. Apart from the physical constraints like fuel, how fast can the mission team react? The sequences can be and are developed months and years in advance (or so it seems from the Significant Events reports) because the trajectories are fairly predictable, and I get the impression that this is a fairly drawn-out process (possibly it's just relaxed). If something unexpected leads to a new plan, how quickly can they crank the handle and turn that into new instructions executing on the spacecraft? Is there slack built in to the sequences (e.g., near apoapsis, as you suggest) which could be used to perform new observations without disturbing the existing plan? (elakdawalla has explained the difficulties of this particular case well in her blog post, but I'm interested in the general case. How fast could they react if, I dunno, Mimas turned unexpectedly pink?) |
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Guest_Sunspot_* |
Feb 20 2006, 09:45 AM
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#8
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Guests |
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Feb 20 2006, 09:50 PM
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#9
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 2492 Joined: 15-January 05 From: center Italy Member No.: 150 |
I think this could be another shot of it: http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/imag...eiImageID=63378 Made a little bit manipulation in order to better contrast the features... this storm is very impressive and appear elevated from sourronding clouds; look also to this spiral structure at the right of the bright patch! -------------------- I always think before posting! - Marco -
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Apr 7 2006, 03:26 PM
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#10
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 2454 Joined: 8-July 05 From: NGC 5907 Member No.: 430 |
The Storm Rages On
Thu, 30 Mar 2006 - This Cassini photograph shows half of Saturn shrouded in shadow, with its moon Tethys hanging in the foreground. A gigantic storm that was first sighted in January 2006 continues to rage in Saturn's southern hemisphere. This image was taken on February 18, 2006, when Cassini was 2.8 million kilometers (1.7 million miles) from Saturn. http://www.universetoday.com/am/publish/sa...es.html?3032006 -------------------- "After having some business dealings with men, I am occasionally chagrined,
and feel as if I had done some wrong, and it is hard to forget the ugly circumstance. I see that such intercourse long continued would make one thoroughly prosaic, hard, and coarse. But the longest intercourse with Nature, though in her rudest moods, does not thus harden and make coarse. A hard, sensible man whom we liken to a rock is indeed much harder than a rock. From hard, coarse, insensible men with whom I have no sympathy, I go to commune with the rocks, whose hearts are comparatively soft." - Henry David Thoreau, November 15, 1853 |
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Apr 19 2006, 03:08 PM
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#11
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 2454 Joined: 8-July 05 From: NGC 5907 Member No.: 430 |
Saturn's Speedy Spin Sparks Spectacular Storms
http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Saturns_...lar_Storms.html Cassini Controllers Overcome Software Glitch http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Cassini_...are_Glitch.html -------------------- "After having some business dealings with men, I am occasionally chagrined,
and feel as if I had done some wrong, and it is hard to forget the ugly circumstance. I see that such intercourse long continued would make one thoroughly prosaic, hard, and coarse. But the longest intercourse with Nature, though in her rudest moods, does not thus harden and make coarse. A hard, sensible man whom we liken to a rock is indeed much harder than a rock. From hard, coarse, insensible men with whom I have no sympathy, I go to commune with the rocks, whose hearts are comparatively soft." - Henry David Thoreau, November 15, 1853 |
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Apr 20 2006, 11:40 AM
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#12
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 2454 Joined: 8-July 05 From: NGC 5907 Member No.: 430 |
SATURN DAILY
- Saturn Storms Dwarf Earth Hurricanes In Size And Longevity http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Saturn_S..._Longevity.html Pasadena CA (SPX) Apr 20, 2006 - Viewed from space, hurricanes on Earth and the huge atmospheric disturbances observed on Saturn look similar, but their differences are greater, offering intriguing insights into the inner workings of the ringed world currently being investigated by NASA's Cassini spacecraft. -------------------- "After having some business dealings with men, I am occasionally chagrined,
and feel as if I had done some wrong, and it is hard to forget the ugly circumstance. I see that such intercourse long continued would make one thoroughly prosaic, hard, and coarse. But the longest intercourse with Nature, though in her rudest moods, does not thus harden and make coarse. A hard, sensible man whom we liken to a rock is indeed much harder than a rock. From hard, coarse, insensible men with whom I have no sympathy, I go to commune with the rocks, whose hearts are comparatively soft." - Henry David Thoreau, November 15, 1853 |
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Apr 21 2006, 05:40 AM
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#13
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 2492 Joined: 15-January 05 From: center Italy Member No.: 150 |
Looking to the last raw Cassini images of Saturn atmosphere, I was intrigued by the presence of many bright spot apparently located only in the planet, especially close to terminator and more visible in the longer-exposure MT3 filtered images; absence of these spots in the dark background sky suggest they could be real features, perhaps lighting! (look at this, for example).
In order to be sure, I compared two distinct MT3 images and discovered that most bright points share exactly same positions, suggesting they are sensor related hot spots; here the result of two images subtraction: Most spots disappears but there are some residual that should be temporal variations and one of them, in particular, is relevant (in the upper/right portion of first image). Could be lighting, but I suspect cosmic rays is the most probable cause... -------------------- I always think before posting! - Marco -
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Apr 21 2006, 07:30 AM
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#14
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 3648 Joined: 1-October 05 From: Croatia Member No.: 523 |
Could be lighting, but I suspect cosmic rays is the most probable cause... Your third image shows that the spots are distributed even across dark sky portions and are likely less visible there in the raw images due to histogram stretching and other factors. It's pretty clear these features are just noise, if they indeed share the same pixel position between frames they are most likely to be due to accumulated CCD damage (and enhanced by a long exposure) and cosmic ray hits being the other random stuff that's left when you subtract the two images. I don't know if lightning was so far ever visually observed at Saturn, but it seems to be located too deep below the clouds to be readily visible. The methane filter is probably not a good choice for hunting lightning, a polarizer in front of it is even worse. A special filter was placed on NAC that's very rarely used and its purpose is probably lightning detection. It's the HAL filter, which I guess stands for hydrogen alpha and thus detects emissions from ionized hydrogen. -------------------- |
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Apr 21 2006, 07:33 PM
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#15
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 2488 Joined: 17-April 05 From: Glasgow, Scotland, UK Member No.: 239 |
It's the HAL filter, which I guess stands for hydrogen alpha and thus detects emissions from ionized hydrogen. Ugordan: No, no, no! It's Heuristically programmed ALgorithmic device... ...ask the guys on Iapetus! Bob Shaw -------------------- Remember: Time Flies like the wind - but Fruit Flies like bananas!
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