Thermal Atlas of the Solar System
Saturn
Temperature at 100 mbar (Cassini spacecraft)
Saturn's upper-atmosphere temperatures from the Cassini spacecraft, 2007–2017: watch the seasons move from southern summer towards northern summer.
About Saturn
Saturn has no surface. This is the temperature near the top of its lower atmosphere, where the pressure is a tenth of Earth's, measured by the Cassini spacecraft from orbit.
Saturn is tilted 27°, a bit more than Earth, but its year lasts 29.5 Earth years, so each season lasts about 7. In 2007 it was late summer in the south, and the south pole was the warmest place. After the equinox in August 2009 the north slowly warmed and the south cooled. The temperatures lag behind the Sun: two years after the equinox the south was still warmer. By 2017, close to northern midsummer, the warm pole was in the north.
Day and night make no difference: a day is under 11 hours, and this air takes years to warm up or cool down. Cassini's measurements were averaged around each latitude, so the map shows bands only, without storms or the hexagon at the north pole.