The Cassini Imaging Science Subsystem (ISS) acquired ~26,000 images of the Jupiter system as the spacecraft encountered the giant planet in December 2000 en route to Saturn. New findings are reported in the March 7, 2003 issue of SCIENCE on the constancy of Jupiter’s zonal winds, the geographical distribution of atmospheric convection, Jupiter's polar stratospheric dynamics, the temporal variability of the northern aurora and a cirumplanetary low-latitude upper tropospheric wave observed for the first time in the UV and near-IR, and also observed in the Cassini Infrared Spectrometer (CIRS) thermal data, Additional discoveries include the spatial variation of auroral emissions arising from Io and Europa in eclipse, a giant volcanic plume over Io's north pole, the first disk-resolved images of the outer jovian satellite Himalia, circumstantial evidence for a causal relationship between the satellites Metis and Adrastea and the main jovian ring, and new information on the nature of the ring particles.

Cassini Imaging Central Laboratory for Operations