Icarus 223, 460–478 (2013)

Saturn's greatest thunderstorm has been recorded in its entirety by two instruments onboard the Cassini Orbiter spacecraft. Massive storms occur every Saturnian year (or 30 Earth years), but this one, observed by Kunio Sayanagi and co-workers, is the first one seen to catch up with its own tail. The Great Storm of 2010–2011 is the longest, lasting 267 days. It began near the site of the String of Pearls in the northern hemisphere and eventually encircled the entire planet, covering a circumference of 300,000 km.

Jovian storms are also huge, but they do not include thunder and lightning. Thus, the Saturnian storm is more similar to hurricanes on Earth, except there is no land to stop the winds. Instead of feeding off warm water, however, warm gas is the energy source. It spawned a vortex that stretched for 12,000 km. When the head of the storm hit the vortex, the storm finally dissipated. How exactly this encounter killed the giant storm is a puzzle that remains to be solved.