Saturn in the 21st Century

Kevin H. Baines is a Senior Scientist at the Space Science and Engineering Center, at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and Principal Scientist at California Institute of Technology/Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena. He has over 35 years of experience in the development, planning, data analysis and publication of science results from NASA and ESA planetary orbital missions. Specializing in the 3-D nature of planetary atmospheres as gleaned from spacecraft-borne visual-to-near-infrared spectral imagers, he has been a NASA-selected scientist on the Cassini-Huygens and Galileo orbiter missions to Jupiter and Saturn and was the leader of the NASA science team on ESA's Venus Express orbiter mission. F. Michael Flasar is a Space Scientist at the Planetary Systems Laboratory, at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. He has devoted 45 years to the study of solar system planets and their atmospheres, particularly from thermal-infrared spectroscopy and radio-occultation data. He has been an investigator on the Voyager mission to the giant planets, the Galileo mission to Jupiter, the Mars Global Surveyor mission, and the Cassini-Huygens mission to Saturn. He is a recipient of NASA Goddard Space Flight Center's John C. Lindsay Memorial Award for Space Science, and is a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union. Norbert Krupp is a Scientist at the Max-Planck-Institut für Sonnensystemforschung, Göttingen. He has 25 years of experience in the data analysis and development of space instrumentation. His main interest is the understanding of processes driving the global configuration and dynamics of particles around planets including the interaction with moons, rings and neutral clouds. He has been involved in several space missions, including: Mars Express, Venus Express, Ulysses, Bepi Colombo, Juice, Galileo, Cassini/Huygens, and Europa Clipper. On Cassini, he co-led the magnetosphere and plasma science working group MAPS, and is now a Co-Investigator of the MIMI instrument. Tom Stallard is an Associate Professor in Planetary Astronomy at the University of Leicester. He is a world-leading planetary astronomer who has observed the gas giants of our solar system from many of the largest telescopes around the world. Focusing on the investigation of aurora of these planets, he has also been extensively involved in analysing spacecraft data, including images of Saturn's aurora taken by the Cassini spacecraft. He has also appeared on numerous television and radio programmes to discuss recent science advances. His public outreach has included involvement in BBC Stargazing live events and he was awarded the honorary title of 'Hoku Kolea' for his extensive work with the Mauna Kea Visitor Information Station.

• Preface; List of contributors; List of reviewers; 1. Introduction to Saturn in the 21st century Kevin H. Baines, F. Michael Flasar, Norbert Krupp and Tom Stallard; 2. The origin and evolution of Saturn, with exoplanet perspective Sushil K. Atreya, Aurélien Crida, Tristan Guillot, Jonathan I. Lunine, Nikku Madhusudhan and Olivier Mousis; 3. The interior of Saturn Jonathan J. Fortney, Ravit Helled, Nadine Nettelmann, David J. Stevenson, Mark S. Marley, William B. Hubbard and Luciano Iess; 4. Saturn's magnetic field and dynamo Ulrich R. Christensen, Hao Cao, Michele Dougherty and Krishan Khurana; 5. The mysterious periodicities of Saturn: clues to the rotation rate of the planet James F. Carbary, Matthew M. Hedman, Thomas W. Hill, Xianzhe Jia, William Kurth, Laurent Lamy and Gabby Provan; 6. Global configuration and seasonal variations of Saturn's magnetosphere Norbert Krupp, Peter Kollmann, Donald G. Mitchell, Michelle Thomsen, Xianzhe Jia, Adam Masters and Philippe Zarka; 7. Saturn's aurora Tom Stallard, Sarah Badman, Ulyana A. Dyudina, Denis Grodent and Laurent Lamy; 8. Saturn's ionosphere Luke Moore, Marina Galand, Arvydas J. Kliore, Andrew F. Nagy and James O'Donoghue; 9. Saturn's variable thermosphere Darrell F. Strobel, Tommi Koskinen and Ingo Müller-Wodarg; 10. Saturn's seasonally changing atmosphere: thermal structure, composition and aerosols Leigh N. Fletcher, Thomas K. Greathouse, Sandrine Guerlet, Julianne I. Moses and Robert A. West; 11. The global atmospheric circulation of Saturn Adam P. Showman, Andrew P. Ingersoll, Richard Achterberg and Yohai Kaspi; 12. Saturn's polar atmosphere Kunio M. Sayanagi, Kevin H. Baines, Ulyana A. Dyudina, Leigh N. Fletcher, Agustin Sánchez-Lavega and Robert A. West; 13. The great Saturn storm of 2010–2011 Agustín Sánchez-Lavega, Georg Fischer, Leigh N. Fletcher, Enrique García-Melendo, Brigette Hesman, Santiago Pérez-Hoyos, Kunio M. Sayanagi and Lawrence A. Sromovsky; 14. The future exploration of Saturn Kevin H. Baines, Sushil K. Atreya, Frank Crary, Scott G. Edgington, Thomas K. Greathouse, Henrik Melin, Olivier Mousis, Glenn S. Orton, Thomas R. Spilker and Anthony Wesley; Index.

'This volume summarizes what has been gleaned from the gigantic trove of data collected by that mission; each of the 14 chapters was written by a group of experts chosen by the editors. … until another mission visits the planet, this will be the definitive reference book on Saturn for graduate students and planetary scientists.' T. D. Oswalt, Choice