Herschel map of Saturn's stratospheric water, delivered by the plumes of Enceladus

TL;DR

This study uses Herschel observations to identify Enceladus as the primary source of water in Saturn's stratosphere, revealing a non-uniform, equatorially peaked distribution influenced by atmospheric dynamics.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed mapping of Saturn's stratospheric water distribution and confirms Enceladus as its main source through empirical modeling.

Findings

Water distribution peaks at the equator and decreases poleward.

Enceladus's plumes are the dominant source of Saturn's stratospheric water.

Water is not uniformly mixed but shows a Gaussian latitudinal profile.

Abstract

Context. The origin of water in the stratospheres of Giant Planets has been an outstanding question ever since its first detection by ISO some 20 years ago. Water can originate from interplanetary dust particles, icy rings and satellites and large comet impacts. Analysis of Herschel Space Observatory observations have proven that the bulk of Jupiter's stratospheric water was delivered by the Shoemaker-Levy 9 impacts in 1994. In 2006, the Cassini mission detected water plumes at the South Pole of Enceladus, placing the moon as a serious candidate for Saturn's stratospheric water. Further evidence was found in 2011, when Herschel demonstrated the presence of a water torus at the orbital distance of Enceladus, fed by the moon's plumes. Finally, water falling from the rings onto Saturn's uppermost atmospheric layers at low latitudes was detected during the final orbits of Cassini's end-of-mission plunge into the atmosphere. Aims. In this paper, we use Herschel mapping observations of water in Saturn's stratosphere to identify its source. Methods. Several empirical models are tested against the Herschel-HIFI and -PACS observations, which were collected on December 30, 2010, and January 2nd, 2011 (respectively). Results. We demonstrate that Saturn's stratospheric water is not uniformly mixed as a function of latitude, but peaking at the equator and decreasing poleward with a Gaussian distribution. We obtain our best fit with an equatorial mole fraction 1.1 ppb and a half-width at half-maximum of 25{\deg}, when accounting for a temperature increase in the two warm stratospheric vortices produced by Saturn's Great Storm of 2010-2011. Conclusions. This work demonstrates that Enceladus is the main source of Saturn's stratospheric water.