image: Saturn's stratospheric beacons (atmospheric responses to the storm plumes deep below in the troposphere) are still present to this day. ESO/VLT tracked these features on a number of days in January and February 2011. The left hand image shows Saturn's normal quiescent stratosphere in March 2010, nine months before the outbreak of the storm. This image relates to an article that appeared in the May 19, 2011, issue of Science Express, published by AAAS. The study, by Leigh Fletcher at University of Oxford and colleagues, was titled, "Thermal Structure and Dynamics of Saturn's Northern Springtime Disturbance." view more
Credit: Image courtesy of ESO/ University of Oxford /L.N. Fletcher