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The "anti-hurricanes" of Saturn
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Vortices mingle amidst other turbulent motions in Saturn's atmosphere in these two comparison images. The image on the right was taken about two Saturn rotations after the image on the left.
Both views show latitudes from -23° to -42°. The region below center in these images (at -35°) has seen regular storm activity since Cassini first approached Saturn in early 2004.
Cassini investigations of the atmosphere from February to October 2004 showed that most of the oval-shaped storms in the latitude region near -35° rotate in a counter-clockwise direction, with smaller storms occasionally merging into larger ones.
On Earth, hurricanes in the Southern Hemisphere rotate clockwise. Thus, the storms in these images of Saturn's southern latitudes could be called "anti-hurricanes."
This backwards spiraling (compared to Earth) is common on the giant planets.
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