Aftermath of the Arrow Storm

Filed under pretty pictures, Saturn's moons, Titan, Cassini, weather and climate

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 The top left image was taken before the storm, on March 21, 2009, and shows a dark equatorial region of Titan called Belet. Embedded within Belet, at its southern edge, is a bright region called Yalaing Terra. In the top right image, taken on December 20, 2010, large areas of Yalaing have darkened. In the bottom image, taken on March 9, 2012, most of these darkened areas have become bright again. In fact, an area at the middle of Yalaing is actually brighter than it was before the storm. The top two photos were processed from archived science data; the bottom, recent one came from the Cassini raw images website so contains JPEG artifacts that reduce its quality.

Here's a detail view:

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Contact us to request publication permission from the copyright holder. Original image data dated on or about March 9, 2012