There is a thunderstorm on Saturn.

--------- #1271 - There is a Thunderstorm on Saturn

- There is a thunderstorm on Saturn that is so big you can see it with your backyard telescope. The size of the storm is the size of the Earth. It is called The Great White Spot, very similar to The Great Red Spot on Jupiter. Our technology is helping astronomers to become space weathermen for the planets and moons outside our own.

- Attachments - Astronauts on the Moon

- Terrestrial storms on the rocky planets like ours can last for days or weeks. However, thunderstorms on the gaseous planets can last for decades. This one on Saturn was first discovered on December 5, 2010. It is already lasted for 8 months. The lightning in the storm is 10,000 more powerful flashing at 10 times per second. We can not see the lightning but we can hear it as radio signals detected by the Cassini Spacecraft.

- Five of the Big White Spots have been observed on Saturn over the past 130 years. The last storm occurred in 1990. The planet Saturn is comprised of layers of thick, rolling gases. These giant thunder storms appear about once a year, but, a Saturn year is 29.5 Earth years. During Saturn’s summer solstice, when it is closest to the Sun. The gas heats up and starts to move.

- The fundamental physics behind the storm, and weather in general, is that hot air rises and cold air sinks. Warmer air leaves the equator and drifts toward the poles where it cools , descends and migrates back toward the equator. The cycle continues.

- The Earth’s 24 hour spin cycle causes clouds to twist into spirals making our weather much more dynamic but not as intense. There is more chaos, but, not enough time for weather to build into giant Spots our planet.

- Venus has a 243 day rotation and hardly any air circulation. The carbon dioxide in Venus’ atmosphere traps the heat and creates a runaway greenhouse effect. The Sun’s ultraviolet radiation breaks down the carbon dioxide which combines with sulfur dioxide and produces sulfuric acid in the atmosphere. Venus still generates hurricane -force winds in this thick atmosphere.

- The storm on Saturn has ballooned into a system 6,000 miles across in the northern hemisphere at 35 degree north. The Spot is a cluster of super- storms each caused by an upwelling of heat , moisture and ammonia from water clouds that are lower down in the atmosphere where the pressure is greater. As the water cloud rises it runs bright, and white with ammonia gas.

- On the gaseous planets, Jupiter and Saturn, the highest clouds consist of ammonia. On Neptune and Uranus the high clouds consist of methane

-  Mar’s atmosphere is 1/100 as dense as Earth’s . Carbon dioxide freezes at the poles and then evaporates when it faces the Sun. The atmospheric pressure goes up by 30% when the poles evaporate.

- It is not just the planets that have weather. Some of the moons have an atmosphere worth studying Saturn’s moon Titan has a methane atmosphere At 75 mile altitude above Titan the winds are blowing 250 miles per hour. The surface temperature is -290 F and the pressure is 47% greater than Earth’s at sea level.

-  Neptune’s moon Triton has a nitrogen and methane atmosphere. The weather there freezes out during the winter and returns during the summer.

- Space weathermen have quite a fascinating job. The more they learn about weather on other planets the better we understand what controls the weather on our own planet.
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707-536-3272, Monday, July 11, 2011