Turbulence... - detail mgnf (2)

No lightning flashes are visible in the image (they would look like medium-sized bright spots, since the light would spread out before it reaches the cloud tops), but non-detection does not mean that lightnings are absent, however. Lightning might be too faint to stand out above background or too deep to be seen through the thick clouds. Bad luck is another possibility: the camera might have missed the strong flashes during the 10' that the shutter was open. A narrow-cloud band crosses the storm from left to right. It is illuminated by the Rings from the North and is brighter on that side. Cassini scientists are looking forward to an extensive Night Side image set, designed to look for lightning. That set will be collected during the first half of 2006.

The view was obtained in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera at a distance of approx. 3,5 MKM (about 2,2 MMs) from Saturn. The image scale is approx. 20 Km (about 12 miles) per pixel.