NASA Cassini: Seasonal changes on Saturn

A blue hue appears in Saturn's southern hemisphere as winter approaches. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SSI

Three of the most recent images show Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, and the recently discovered vortex in the atmosphere at the south pole.

The visible light cameras on Cassini have been monitoring a strange yellow haze in the detached haze layer at Titan’s south pole since 27 March.

The visual and infrared spectrometers then detected clouds building up in the region on 22 May.

When Cassini flew by Titan on June 27, 2012, it was found that the vortex is spinning faster than the moon itself is rotating.

The views of the vortex are only possible because Cassini is on a new orbit that is tilted, which enables it to get a better look at the polar regions of both Saturn and its moons.

"Cassini has been in orbit now for the last eight years, and despite the fact that we can't know exactly what the next five years will show us, we can be certain that whatever it is will be wondrous," explains Carolyn Porco.

The south polar vortex is visible in this image. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SSI 

Cassini is currently in its second mission extension, which has been called the Solstice Mission, and monitoring the seasonal changes on the ringed planet is one of the main objectives at the moment.

"It is so fantastic to experience, through the instruments of Cassini, seasonal changes in the Saturn system," said depute project scientist Amanda Hendrix.

"Some of the changes we see in the data are completely unexpected, while some occur like clockwork on a seasonal timescale. It's an exciting time to be at Saturn."