Editing Saturn (section)

==== Cloud layers ====
[[File:Saturn Storm.jpg|thumb|A global storm girdles the planet in 2011. The storm passes around the planet, such that the storm's head (bright area) passes its tail.|left]]

Saturn's atmosphere exhibits a banded pattern similar to Jupiter's, but Saturn's bands are much fainter and are much wider near the equator. The nomenclature used to describe these bands is the same as on Jupiter. Saturn's finer cloud patterns were not observed until the flybys of the ''[[Voyager Space Probe|Voyager]]'' spacecraft during the 1980s. Since then, Earth-based [[telescope|telescopy]] has improved to the point where regular observations can be made.<ref name=emp105_2_143/>

The composition of the clouds varies with depth and increasing pressure. In the upper cloud layers, with temperatures in the range of 100–160&nbsp;K and pressures extending between 0.5–2 [[Bar (unit)|bar]], the clouds consist of ammonia ice. Water [[ice cloud]]s begin at a level where the pressure is about 2.5 bar and extend down to 9.5 bar, where temperatures range from 185 to 270&nbsp;K. Intermixed in this layer is a band of ammonium hydrosulfide ice, lying in the pressure range 3–6 bar with temperatures of 190–235&nbsp;K. Finally, the lower layers, where pressures are between 10 and 20 bar and temperatures are 270–330&nbsp;K, contains a region of water droplets with ammonia in aqueous solution.<ref name=dougherty_esposito2009/>

Saturn's usually bland atmosphere occasionally exhibits long-lived ovals and other features common on Jupiter. In 1990, the [[Hubble Space Telescope]] imaged an enormous white cloud near Saturn's equator that was not present during the ''Voyager'' encounters, and in 1994 another smaller storm was observed. The 1990 storm was an example of a [[Great White Spot]], a short-lived phenomenon that occurs once every Saturnian year, roughly every 30 Earth years, around the time of the northern hemisphere's [[summer solstice]].<ref name=icarus176_1_155/> Previous Great White Spots were observed in 1876, 1903, 1933, and 1960, with the 1933 storm being the best observed.<ref>{{cite book |editor1-link=Patrick Moore |editor1-last=Moore |editor1-first=Patrick |title=1993 Yearbook of Astronomy |location=London |publisher=W.W. Norton & Company |date=1992 |first1=Mark |last1=Kidger |chapter=The 1990 Great White Spot of Saturn |pages=176–215|bibcode=1992ybas.conf.....M }}</ref> The latest giant storm was observed in 2010. In 2015, researchers used [[Very Large Array]] telescope to study Saturnian atmosphere, and reported that they found "long-lasting signatures of all mid-latitude giant storms, a mixture of equatorial storms up to hundreds of years old, and potentially an unreported older storm at 70°N".<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Li |first1=Cheng |last2=de Pater |first2=Imke |last3=Moeckel |first3=Chris |last4=Sault |first4=R. J. |last5=Butler |first5=Bryan |last6=deBoer |first6=David |last7=Zhang |first7=Zhimeng |title=Long-lasting, deep effect of Saturn's giant storms |journal=Science Advances |date=11 August 2023 |volume=9 |issue=32 |pages=eadg9419 |doi=10.1126/sciadv.adg9419 |pmid=37566653 |pmc=10421028 |bibcode=2023SciA....9G9419L }}</ref>

The winds on Saturn are the second fastest among the Solar System's planets, after Neptune's. ''Voyager'' data indicate peak easterly winds of {{convert|500|m/s|km/h|abbr=on}}.<ref name="Voyager Summary 1">{{cite web |title=Voyager Saturn Science Summary |url=http://www.solarviews.com/eng/vgrsat.htm |first=Calvin J. |last=Hamilton |access-date=5 July 2007 |date=1997 |publisher=Solarviews |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110926211656/http://www.solarviews.com/eng/vgrsat.htm |archive-date=26 September 2011 |url-status=dead }}</ref> In images from the ''[[Cassini–Huygens|Cassini]]'' spacecraft during 2007, Saturn's northern hemisphere displayed a bright blue hue, similar to Uranus. The color was most likely caused by [[Rayleigh scattering]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/multimedia/pia09188.html |title=Saturn's Strange Hexagon |access-date=6 July 2007 |date=27 March 2007 |last=Watanabe |first=Susan |publisher=NASA |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100116155833/http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/multimedia/pia09188.html |archive-date=16 January 2010 |url-status=live }}</ref> [[Thermography]] has shown that Saturn's south pole has a warm [[polar vortex]], the only known example of such a phenomenon in the Solar System.<ref name=MCP>{{cite web |url=http://www.mcpstars.org/node/353 |title=Warm Polar Vortex on Saturn |date=2007 |publisher=Merrillville Community Planetarium |access-date=25 July 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110921212018/http://www.mcpstars.org/node/353 |archive-date=21 September 2011 |url-status=dead }}</ref> Whereas temperatures on Saturn are normally −185&nbsp;°C, temperatures on the vortex often reach as high as −122&nbsp;°C, suspected to be the warmest spot on Saturn.<ref name=MCP/>