文章基本信息

标题：Strong Temporal Variation Over One Saturnian Year: From Voyager to Cassini
本地全文：下载
作者：Liming Li ; Richard K. Achterberg ; Barney J. Conrath 等
期刊名称：Scientific Reports
电子版ISSN：2045-2322
出版年度：2013
卷号：3
DOI：10.1038/srep02410
出版社：Springer Nature
摘要：Here we report the combined spacecraft observations of Saturn acquired over one Saturnian year (~29.5 Earth years), from the Voyager encounters (1980–81) to the new Cassini reconnaissance (2009–10). The combined observations reveal a strong temporal increase of tropic temperature (~10 Kelvins) around the tropopause of Saturn (i.e., 50 mbar), which is stronger than the seasonal variability (~a few Kelvins). We also provide the first estimate of the zonal winds at 750 mbar, which is close to the zonal winds at 2000 mbar. The quasi-consistency of zonal winds between these two levels provides observational support to a numerical suggestion inferring that the zonal winds at pressures greater than 500 mbar do not vary significantly with depth. Furthermore, the temporal variation of zonal winds decreases its magnitude with depth, implying that the relatively deep zonal winds are stable with time.