Saturn's Great Storm of 2010-2011: Evidence for ammonia and water ices from analysis of VIMS spectra

TL;DR

This study analyzes Cassini/VIMS spectra to identify ammonia and water ices in Saturn's 2010-2011 Great Storm, providing the first spectroscopic evidence of water ice in Saturn's atmosphere near the cloud deck.

Contribution

It presents the first spectroscopic detection of water ice in Saturn's atmosphere and models the aerosol composition during the Great Storm.

Findings

Ammonia ice is a primary aerosol component.

Water ice is present near the cloud deck.

Heterogeneous and homogeneous models both fit the spectral data.

Abstract

Our analysis of Cassini/VIMS near-infrared spectra of Saturn's Great Storm of 2010-2011 reveals a multi-component aerosol composition comprised primarily of ammonia ice, with a significant component of water ice. The most likely third component is ammonium hydrosulfide or some weakly absorbing material similar to what dominates visible clouds outside the storm region. Horizontally heterogeneous models favor ammonium hydrosulfide as the third component, while horizontally uniform models favor the weak absorber. Both models rely on water ice absorption to compensate for residual spectral gradients produced by ammonia ice from 3.0 microns to 3.1 microns and need the third component to fill in the sharp ammonia ice absorption peak near 2.96 microns. The best heterogeneous model has spatial coverage fractions of 55% ammonia ice, 22% water ice, and 23% ammonium hydrosulfide. The best homogeneous model has an optically thin layer of weakly absorbing particles above an optically thick layer of water ice particles coated by ammonia ice. This is the first spectroscopic evidence of water ice in Saturn's atmosphere, found near the level of Saturn's visible cloud deck where it could only be delivered by powerful convection originating from ~200 km deeper in the atmosphere.