Dark and sharply defined ring shadows appear to constrict the flow of
color from Saturn's warmly hued south to the bluish northern latitudes.
Scientists studying Saturn are not yet sure about the precise cause of the
color change from north to south. NASA Voyager spacecraft flybys witnessed
a more evenly painted planet in the early 1980s, when Saturn was closer to
equinox. However, the bluish color was readily apparent upon Cassini's
approach to the planet in late 2003, when Saturn was just coming out of
its northern hemisphere winter. Scientists have speculated that the color
is due to seasonal effects on the atmosphere.
Aside from the color differences, the cloud morphology is quite different
in the polar regions compared to the mid-latitudes. Bright, isolated
clouds dot the high latitudes, while Saturn's middle is characterized by
flowing cloud bands and the occasional bright or dark vortex.
This view looks toward the lit side of the rings from about half a degree
below the ring plane.
Images taken using red, green and blue spectral filters were combined to
create this natural-color view. The images were obtained with the Cassini
spacecraft wide-angle camera on Feb. 4, 2007, at a distance of
approximately 1.2 million kilometers (700,000 miles) from Saturn. Image
scale is 67 kilometers (42 miles) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European
Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory,
a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages
the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The
Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and
assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space
Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The Cassini imaging team
homepage is at http://ciclops.org.
