The Composite Infrared
Spectrometer, on the Cassini orbiter,
covers the thermal infrared from 7 mm
to 1 mm. This makes it a very good probe
of temperatures (and by extension, of atmospheric winds) and of
composition in
the Saturn system. Retrieved atmospheric
temperatures on Saturn bear on the question of whether its equatorial
winds
have slowed down, as suggested by recent HST studies.
Temperatures in Saturn’s rings show structure
down to the smallest scales resolved (~100 km) and may provide clues to
the
rotation rates of the individual particles.
The moons Phoebe and Iapetus have near-surface structure that is
fluffier than that of Jupiter’s Galilean satellites.
Titan, with an atmosphere, has a complex
chemistry that is perhaps reminiscent of the early earth, and
atmospheric winds
rotating 10 times faster than its surface.
Its winter pole, which is cold, isolated from low latitudes by a
strong
circumpolar vortex, and enhanced with organic compounds, may form an
analog
with the terrestrial Antarctic ozone hole.