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Bruce Murray Space Image Library

Saturn's north polar vortex (an animation)

Saturn's north polar vortex (an animation)
Saturn's north polar vortex (an animation) Cassini took 14 images of Saturn's north polar vortex on 27 November 2012 over a period of many hours as the planet rotated beneath it. The 14 images have been processed to remove the geometric effects of Cassini's oblique viewpoint and of Saturn's rotation, holding the outer bright ring of white clouds fixed. With these motions removed, you can see individual vortices rotating and shearing, and the central clouds rotating faster than the outer ones. NASA / JPL-Caltech / SSI / Kevin McAbee

Here are two stages in the production of this animation, shown at low resolution to save bandwidth. Here are the original 14 images, animated:

Saturn's north polar vortex (animation) - aligned
Saturn's north polar vortex (animation) - aligned Image: NASA / JPL / SSI / Kevin McAbee

And the 14 images, stretched and aligned on the white band of clouds:

Saturn's north polar vortex (animation) - original frames
Saturn's north polar vortex (animation) - original frames Image: NASA / JPL / SSI / Kevin McAbee