A vertical corrugation in Saturn's almost transparent D ring can give rise
to brightness variations.
In this graphic representation, the diagonal lines (or arrows) correspond
to lines of sight through the corrugated ring. The grayscale plot along
the bottom shows the ring's total optical depth (a measure of opacity) and
brightness as seen by the observer.
See PIA08325 for more details about the vertically corrugated structure in
Saturn's D ring.
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.
