Observations of Saturn's Ribbon Wave 14 Years after Its Discovery

Abstract

A singular feature in planetary atmospheres, the saturnian midnorthern latitude "ribbon" wave, was discovered in images obtained during the Voyager 1 and 2 encounters with the planet in 1980 and 1981. Here we present evidence of its first detection 14 years later (about half a Saturn year later) using archived Hubble Space Telescope images. The properties of the recovered wave (latitude location, dominant wavenumber, meridional amplitude, and reflectivity contrast) in 1994-1995 are similar to those observed during the Voyager era.