Annotated Version
Lots of clouds are visible in this infrared image of Saturn's moon Titan.
These clouds form and move much like those on Earth, but in a much slower,
more lingering fashion, new results from NASA's Cassini spacecraft show.
Scientists have monitored Titan's atmosphere for three-and-a-half years,
between July 2004 and December 2007, and observed more than 200 clouds.
The way these clouds are distributed around Titan matches scientists'
global circulation models. The only exception is timing—clouds are
still noticeable in the southern hemisphere while fall is approaching.
Three false-color images make up this mosaic and show the clouds at 40 to
50 degrees mid-latitude. The images were taken by Cassini's visual and
infrared mapping spectrometer during a close flyby of Titan on Sept. 7,
2006, known as T17. For a similar view see PIA12005.
Each image is a color composite, with red shown at the 2-micron
wavelength, green at 1.6 microns, and blue at 2.8 microns. An infrared
color mosaic is also used as a background (red at 5 microns, green at 2
microns and blue at 1.3 microns).
The characteristic elongated mid-latitude clouds, which are easily visible
in bright bluish tones (see close-up in the inset) are still active even
late into 2006-2007. According to climate models, these clouds should have
faded out since 2005.
Scientists will continue to observe the long-term changes during Cassini's
extended mission, which runs until the fall of 2010.
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 was designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The Visual
and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer team is based at the University of
Arizona, Tucson.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm. The visual and infrared mapping
spectrometer team homepage is at http://wwwvims.lpl.arizona.edu.