Assessing the long-term variability of Venus winds at cloud level from VIRTIS–Venus Express

The Venus Express (VEX) mission has been in orbit to Venus for more than 4 years now. The Visible and Infrared Thermal Imaging Spectrometer (VIRTIS) instrument onboard VEX observes Venus in two channels (visible and infrared) obtaining spectra and multi-wavelength images of the planet that can be used to sample the atmosphere at different altitudes. Day-side images in the ultraviolet range (380 nm) are used to study the dynamics of the upper cloud at 66–72 km while night-side images in the near infrared (1.74 μm) map the opacity of the lower cloud deck at 44–48 km. Here we present a long-term analysis of the global atmospheric dynamics at these levels using a large selection of orbits from the VIRTIS-M dataset covering 860 Earth days that extends our previous work (Sánchez-Lavega, A. et al. [2008]. Geophys. Res. Lett. 35, L13204) and allows studying the variability of the global circulation at the two altitude levels. The atmospheric superrotation is evident with equatorial to mid-latitudes westward velocities of 100 and 60 m s^?1 in the upper and lower cloud layers. These zonal velocities are almost constant in latitude from the equator to 50°S. From 50°S to 90°S the zonal winds at both cloud layers decrease steadily to zero at the pole. Individual cloud tracked winds have errors of 3–10 m s^?1 with a mean of 5 m s^?1 and the standard deviations for a given latitude of our zonal and meridional winds are 9 m s^?1. The zonal winds in the upper cloud change with the local time in a way that can be interpreted in terms of a solar tide. The zonal winds in the lower cloud are stable at mid-latitudes to the tropics and present variability at subpolar latitudes apparently linked to the activity of the South polar vortex. While the upper cloud presents a net meridional motion consistent with the upper branch of a Hadley cell with peak velocity v = 10 m s^?1 at 50°S, the lower cloud meridional motions are less organized with some cloud features moving with intense northwards and southwards motions up to v = ±15 m s^?1 but, on average, with almost null global meridional motions at all latitudes. We also examine the long-term behavior of the winds at these two vertical layers by comparing our extended wind tracked data with results from previous missions.     

Experimental reconstruction of Lomonosov’s discovery of Venus’s atmosphere with antique refractors during the 2012 transit of Venus

In 1761, the Russian polymath Mikhail Vasilievich Lomonosov (1711–1765) discovered the atmosphere of Venus during its transit over the Sun’s disc. In this paper we report on experimental reenactments of Lomonosov’s discovery with antique refractors during the transit of Venus June 5–6, 2012. We conclude that Lomonosov’s telescope was fully adequate to the task of detecting the arc of light around Venus off the Sun’s disc during ingress or egress provided proper experimental techniques as described by Lomonosov in his 1761 report are employed.     

How Many Convective Zones Are There in the Atmosphere of Venus?

The qualitative characteristics of the vertical structure of the atmospheres of Venus and the Earth essentially differ. For instance, there are at least two, instead of one, zones with normal (thermal) convection on Venus. The first one is near the surface (a boundary layer); the second is at the altitudes of the lower part of the main cloud layer between 49 and 55 km. Contrary to the hypotheses proposed by Izakov (2001, 2002), the upper convective zone prevents energy transfer from the upper clouds to the subcloud atmosphere by anomalous turbulent heat conductivity. It is possible, however, that the anomalous turbulent heat conductivity takes part in the redistribution of the heat fluxes within the lower (subcloud) atmosphere.     

Analysis of thermal emission from the nightside of Venus at 1.51 and 1.55 μm

We present radiative transfer modelling of thermal emission from the nightside of Venus in two ‘spectral window’ regions at 1.51 and 1.55 μm. The first discovery of these windows, reported by Erard et al. [Erard, S., Drossart, P., Piccioni, G., 2009. J. Geophys. Res. Planets 114, doi:10.1029/2008JE003116. E00B27], was achieved using a principal component analysis of data from the VIRTIS instrument on Venus Express. These windows are spectrally narrow, with a full-width at half-maximum of ∼20 nm, and less bright than the well-known 1.7 and 2.3 μm spectral windows by two orders of magnitude.In this note we present the first radiative transfer analysis of these windows. We conclude that the radiation in these windows originates at an altitude of 20-35 km. As is the case for the other infrared window regions, the brightness of the windows is affected primarily by the optical depth of the overlying clouds; in addition, the 1.51 μm radiance shows a very weak sensitivity to water vapour abundance.     

Water vapor in Venus determined by airborne observations of the 8200 Å band

The region of the 8200 Å Band of H₂O was studied in spectra of Venus obtained with an echelle grating spectrograph operated at an altitude of 14.6 km in the NASA Learjet research aircraft. Taking advantage of low foreground absorption, observing at a time of velocity quadrature, differential spectroscopy with respect to lunar spectra, and spectrum averaging, we establish a value of H₂O of 3 ± 20 μ for the total path over the entire disk. This value differs from earlier studies of the integrated disk but supports the low values recently derived from infrared bands and by very high spectral resolution groundbased studies.     

Observations of Venus water vapor over the disk of Venus: The 1972–1974 data using the H2O lines at 8197 Å and 8176 Å

The Venus water vapor line at 8197.71 Å has been monitored at several positions on the disk of Venus and at phase angles between 21° and 162°. Variations in the abundance have been found with spatial location, phase angle and time. During the 1972–1974 period, the total two-way absorption has varied from less than 1 to 77 μm of water vapor. The dependence on phase angle indicates 20 to 50 μm over the disk between 30° and 110° and small, but detectable amounts present during the rest of the observations. The spatial distribution with respect to the intensity equator is uniform with no location on the disk having systematically a higher or lower abundance. Comparisons made between the water vapor abundandances and the CO₂ abundances determined from near-simultaneous observations of CO₂ bands at the same positions on the disk of Venus show no correlation for the majority of the samples.     

First observation of 628 CO2 isotopologue band at 3.3 μm in the atmosphere of Venus by solar occultation from Venus Express

The new ESA Venus Express orbiter is the first mission applying the probing technique of solar and stellar occultation to the atmosphere of Venus, with the SPICAV/SOIR instrument. SOIR is a new type of spectrometer used for solar occultations in the range 2.2-4.3 μm. Thanks to a high spectral resolving power R∼15,000-20,000 (unprecedented in planetary space exploration), a new gaseous absorption band was soon detected in the atmospheric transmission spectra around 2982 cm⁻¹, showing a structure resembling an unresolved Q branch and a number of isolated lines with a regular wave number pattern. This absorption could not be matched to any species contained in HITRAN or GEISA databases, but was found very similar to an absorption pattern observed by a US team in the spectrum of solar light reflected by the ground of Mars [Villanueva, G.L., Mumma, M.J., Novak, R.E., Hewagama, T., 2008. Icarus 195 (1), 34-44]. This team then suggested to us that the absorption was due to an uncatalogued transition of the ¹⁶O¹²C¹⁸O molecule. The possible existence of this band was soon confirmed from theoretical considerations by Perevalov and Tashkun. Some SOIR observations of the atmospheric transmission are presented around 2982 cm⁻¹, and rough calculations of line strengths of the Q branch are produced, based on the isotopic ratio measured earlier in the lower atmosphere of Venus. This discovery emphasizes the role of isotopologues of CO₂ (as well as H₂O and HDO) as important greenhouse gases in the atmosphere of Venus.     

Large,solid particles in the clouds of Venus: Do they exist?

The discovery of large, solid particles in the clouds of Venus is one of the most significant findings of Pioneer Venus because it means that a substantial mass of the clouds is composed of a material other than sulfuric acid. The evidence which suggests that solid particles form a distinctive size mode is reexamined. The mode is defined by a discontinuity between two size ranges of the Pioneer Venus particle size spectrometer. This discontinuity could represent a real size mode. However, it could also be an artifact of the measurement technique. R. G. Knollenberg (1984) discusses several possible instrumental effects which might have caused this discontinuity. It is hypothesized herein that such effects did occur and that the large particles are really the tail of the mode 2 sulfuric acid particle size distribution and are not a separate mode of solid particles. Using such a revised size distribution, it is shown that all of the Pioneer Venus and Venera optical data from the lower clouds can be explained with sulfuric acid droplets without introducing any solid particles. As a by-product of this analysis, it is also found that the upper clouds of Venus must contain a material with a higher refractive index than sulfuric acid. A small quantity of sulfur could account for this observation.     

Transient mantle layering and the episodic behaviour of Venus due to the ‘basalt barrier’ mechanism

Numerical models of mantle convection that include the ‘basalt barrier’ mechanism are explored for Venus. The ‘basalt barrier’ mechanism is due to the positive buoyancy of subducted basaltic crust between the mantle depths of 660 and 750 km. The inclusion of this mechanism in models of Earth’s evolution has been shown to cause episodic mantle layering early in Earth history and we explore whether it can also operate on Venus. The models presented here include a moderately mobile lithosphere, which is not representative of the current state of Venus, but this allows us to exclude the effects of episodic lithosphere mobility and thus to isolate the effect of the basalt barrier. This is a step in a systematic approach to models with a mostly-static lithosphere. We find the basalt barrier does yield episodically layered mantle convection in some Venus models. The likelihood of episodic layering is increased by Venus high surface temperature and by its less mobile or immobile lithosphere. Surprisingly, secondary differences from Earth, including the lower gravity, density and mantle depth also promote episodic layering. The models suggest that mantle layering and overturns may still be likely to occur in Venus. The breakdown of mantle layering and consequent mantle overturns would lead to dramatic episodes of volcanism, formation of large amounts of crust, and tectonic activity on the planet’s surface, as has been inferred to have happened on Venus around 500 Ma ago from surface morphology and cratering. These results thus suggest that a transient layering of the mantle by the ‘basalt barrier’ mechanism and mantle overturns may be part of the explanation for Venus’s recent resurfacing.     

Observations of CO in the stratosphere of Venus via its J = 0 → 1 rotational transition

We have observed carbon monoxide in the stratosphere of Venus at phase angles of 180 and 120° via the J = 0 → 1 rotational transition at 115.2712 GHz. The mixing ratio profile of CO has been obtained by fitting the theoretical spectrum produced by a small number of layers with constant CO mixing ratio to the line profile, and the results suggest that the CO mixing ratio below the 1-mb level increased by at least a factor of 10 between 180 and 120° phase angles. The depletion of CO on the nightside of the planet was not anticipated and may require either a new loss mechanism for CO which can operate without sunlight or an increase in the amount of vertical mixing on the nightside.     

The results of the photographic positional observations of Venus on the wide-field astrograph of the Sternberg Astronomical Institute,Moscow State University,in 1969–1988

A new technique for the reduction of the observed position of Venus with a correction for the phase effect and photographic irradiation is briefly described. For the first time, a method for bringing the observed position of Venus into the system of standard exposure is proposed that considerably diminishes the random errors of a session and the whole line of observations. Original Venus observational material is presented together with accuracy estimations. The O-C difference yielded by the reduction procedure is plotted along both coordinate axes.     

The 1.10- and 1.18-μm nightside windows of Venus observed by SPICAV-IR aboard Venus Express

Observations of the 1.10- and 1.18-μm nightside windows by the SPICAV-IR instrument aboard Venus Express were analyzed to characterize the various sources of gaseous opacity and determine the H₂O mole fraction in the lower atmosphere of Venus. We showed that the line profile model of Afanasenko and Rodin (Afanasenko, T.S., Rodin, A.V. [2007]. Astron. Lett. 33, 203–210) underestimates the CO₂ absorption in the high-wavelength wing of the 1.18-μm window and we derived an empirical lineshape that matches this wing well. An additional continuum opacity is required to reproduce the variation of the 1.10- and 1.18-μm radiances with surface elevation as observed by the VIRTIS-M instrument aboard Venus Express. A constant absorption coefficient of 0.7 ± 0.2 × 10⁻⁹ cm⁻¹ am⁻² best reproduces the observed variation. We compared spectra calculated with different CO₂ and H₂O line lists. We found that the CDSD line list lacks the 5ν₁ + ν₃ series of CO₂ bands, which provide significant opacity in Venus’ deep atmosphere, and we have constructed a composite line list that best reproduces the observations. We also showed for the first time that HDO brings significant absorption at 1140–1190 nm. Using the best representation of the atmospheric opacity we could reach, we retrieved a water vapor mole fraction of ppmv, pertaining to the altitude range 5–25 km. Combined with previous measurements in the 1.74- and 2.3-μm windows, this result provides strong evidence for a uniform H₂O profile below 40 km, in agreement with chemical models.     

On the interpretation of the “inverse phase effect” for CO2 equivalent widths on Venus

Computations of the equivalent widths of absorption lines as a function of planetary phase angle are made for a homogeneous cloud with particles having the properties (shape, refractive index, and size distribution) deduced from polarimetry of Venus. The computed equivalent widths show an “inverse phase effect” comparable to that which is observed for CO₂ lines on Venus. This result verifies a recent suggestion of Regas et al. that the existence of an inverse phase effect does not by itself imply the presence of multiple layers of scattering particles in the atmosphere of Venus.     

Distributions of the Venus 1.27-μm O2 airglow and rotational temperature

Imaging spectroscopic observations of the Venus 1.27-μm O₂ airglow were carried out with ground-based telescopes from 2002 to 2007. Spectral image cubes were taken with the Okayama Astrophysical Observatory/infrared imaging spectrometer (superOASIS), the Gunma Astronomical Observatory/near-infrared camera and NASA's Infrared Telescope Facility/cryogenic echelle spectrograph (CSHELL). The rotational temperature shows weak positive correlation with the airglow intensity. However, there are some regions that have almost same intensities but different temperatures. The intensities tend to decrease from the anti-solar point to the terminator besides local features. These results indicate that there are local strong downward flows superimposed on the subsolar-to-antisolar circulation.     

CS2: Candidate for the 3150-Å Venus band

The 3150-Å absorption on Venus, found by Barker et al. (1975, J. Atmos. Sci.32), may be due to carbon disulfide. The stability and thermodynamics of the carbon chalcogenides are briefly discussed.     

Temperature and pressure determinations in the Venus atmosphere by means of high-resolution spectra from 1 to 2.5 μm

Twenty-one bands of CO₂ and the 2-0 band of CO were analyzed for best temperature and pressure fits from Venus spectra obtained with the “Connes” interferometer at the Steward Observatory 2.25-m telescope during the spring of 1971. An average temperature of 241 ± 7°K, an effective pressure of 0.12 ± 0.06 atm, and an average two-way transmission abundance of 3 km-amagat were determined. No difference in temperature or pressure between hot bands, a double hot band, and regular bands was found. Our results were compared to model calculations for a reflecting layer and scattering atmosphere. The results indicate that, most likely, spectroscopic line formation occurs in a relatively clear space above a scattering cloud layer with a reasonably well-defined upper boundary.     

Tectonic evolution of Ovda Regio: An example of highly deformed continental crust on Venus?

A detailed structural analysis of several selected areas of Ovda Regio provides evidence of a complex tectonic evolution. We have reported thrusting in the marginal fold belts indicating together with the presence of short-wavelength folds a significant amount of shortening. Extensional tectonics postdate at least in some locations contraction, while the contrary was not observed. Both contraction and extension occur on a complex layered crust yielding contemporary structures of different wavelengths. The thrust and fold belts of the plateau margins are characterized by concentric contraction followed by concentric contraction with perpendicular extension and finally radial extension. Deformation in the thrust and fold belts of Ovda margins is gradually transmitted to the external plains. A complex tectonic history has been revealed in the internal area of Ovda, basically characterized by contraction in different directions generating basin and dome interference at different wavelengths. Small amounts of a non-coaxial component of deformation have been observed both in the margins and in the central area of the plateau. All the reported observations can be explained if Ovda Regio is a continent that survived a global subduction event.