Planetary Society logo
  • “Exploration is in our nature.” - Carl Sagan

Wind speeds on Saturn

Wind speeds on Saturn
Wind speeds on Saturn Wind speeds on Saturn were derived by tracking the motions of clouds observed by Voyager and Cassini. The fastest winds blow around Saturn's equator; at higher latitudes there are alternating eastward and westward jets. Exactly how fast the winds are blowing depends upon your choice of Saturn's rotation rate, which is generally measured from the rotation rate of its magnetic field. That rotation rate was measured to be slower by Cassini than by Voyager. If you use the Voyager reference rotation rate, most of Saturn's winds are prograde (the air moves eastward relative to Saturn's rotation), shown as the dashed line on this graph. If you use the Cassini reference rotation rate, shown as the solid line, the winds alternate eastward and westward, as they do on Jupiter. NASA / JPL-Caltech / University of Oxford