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Originally Posted by Kullat Nunu
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Originally Posted by Grand_Lunar
I doubt Saturn's weather is more violent that Jupiters. Otherwise, wouldn't we see Jupiter-like storms there? Or does that just mean Jupiter's atmosphere is more stable for large storms to form than Saturn's? More stuff for Cassini to investigate!
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Why not? Voyagers found higher windspeeds on Saturn. Also huge equatorial storms have been detect there. On the other hand, Jupiter's atmosphere is much more turbulent, thanks to Sun, so Jupiter weather might be more violent in that way (more colliding storms etc.) I don't know about Uranus, it was hidden beneath the haze and the planet doesn't have internal heat source, so it might be most pacific of the gas giants. Neptunus, thanks to lack of solar heating and thus turbulence has highest windspeeds of all.
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Originally Posted by Grand_Lunar
Was lightning ever detected at Saturn by any of the previous probes?
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Yes, by Voyagers. Was there some lightning detected even between ring particles? |
Well, the fact that Saturn has supersonic winds (over 1,000 mph) in itself makes the weather more violent. If 1,000 mph winds aren't categorized as violent weather, then I don't know what is.
Also, as Kullat Nunu pointed out, there were those huge eruptions of white cloud that appeared in Saturn's atmosphere. I'm VERY curious as to what they are. Maybe they are titanic thunderstorm complexes. As I may have mentioned, I have a fascination for violent weather-and I am primarily interested in thunderstorm activity on Saturn. (If there's any on Titan, that would be interesting to see as well.
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One thing Kullat Nunu-I disagree that the sun is responsible for the violent storms on Jupiter-I think that this is more due to internal heating. From what I recall, Jupiter emits more heat than it receives from the sun. A fact: when the Galileo probe ceased transmitting at 175 miles into the Jovian atmosphere, the pressure was 22 Earth atmospheres, with a temperature of 300 degrees Fahrenheit.
If I recall correctly, much of Jupiter's thunderstorm activity was located near the equator. However, it is said that there appears to be a terrific amount of convection at the poles. I don't think any photos were taken to spot lightning at the poles.
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