Saturn's equatorial haze

We have measured the amount of Raman scattering in Saturn's equatorial zone and polar regions near the central meridian at the wavelengths of the H and K Ca II solar lines, 3934 Å and 3969 Å. Approximately 2.1% of the sunlight in this wavelength range is Raman scattered out of this range in Saturn's equatorial zone. Modeling the aerosol particle distribution as a clear, Rayleigh- and Raman-scattering gas over a dense haze yields an H₂ column abundance of about 40 km-Amagats. Comparison with results obtained by Pioneer 11 suggests that either the equatorial haze was 2.5 times deeper at the time of these observations (May, 1981) than at the time of the Pioneer 11 flyby (Sept., 1979); or the haze particles are much more strongly polarizing in blue light than they are in red light.