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Tracking alien turbulences with Venus Express
April 04, 2007New images and data from ESA's mission to Venus provide new insights into the turbulent and noxious atmosphere of Earth's sister planet. What causes violent winds and turbulences? Is the surface topography playing a role in the complex global dynamics of the atmosphere? Venus Express is on the case.
Venus' atmosphere represents a true puzzle for scientists. Winds are so powerful and fast that they circumnavigate the planet in only four Earth days - the atmospheric 'super-rotation' - while the planet itself is very slow in comparison, taking 243 Earth days to perform one full rotation around its axis.
At the poles things get really complicated with huge double-eyed vortices providing a truly dramatic view. In addition, a layer of dense clouds covers the whole planet as a thick curtain, preventing observers using conventional optical means from seeing what lies beneath.
Venus Express is on the contrary capable of looking through the atmosphere at different depths, by probing it at different infrared wavelengths. The Ultraviolet, Visible and Near-Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (VIRTIS) on board is continuing its systematic investigation of Venus' atmospheric layers to solve the riddle of the causes for such turbulent and stormy atmosphere.
The images presented with this article focus on Venusian atmospheric turbulences and cloud features, whose shape and size vary with planetary latitudes. At the equator, clouds are irregular and assume a peculiar 'bubble'-shape. At mid latitudes they are more regular and streaky, running almost parallel to the direction of the super rotation with speed reaching more than 400 kilometres per hour. Going higher up in latitude, in the polar region, the clouds end up in entering a vortex shape.
With its multi-wavelength eyes, VIRTIS can observe the atmosphere and the cloud layers not only at different depths, but also both in the day- and night-side of the planet - a characteristic that allows an overall assessment of the 'environmental' causes that can be at the origin of such an atmospheric complexity.
At the equator, the extremely violent winds of the super-rotation are in constant 'battle' with other kinds of local turbulences, or 'regional' winds, creating very complex cloud structures.
One type of regional wind is due to the strong flux of radiation from the Sun reaching the atmosphere of the planet on the day-side. This flux heats up the atmosphere creating convective cells, where masses of warm air move upwards and generate local turbulence and winds.
On the night-side there is obviously no flux from the Sun, but the clouds' shape and the wind dynamics are somehow similar to that we see on the day-side. So, scientists are currently trying to understand if there is any mechanism other than 'convection' responsible for the equatorial turbulences, both on the day- and night-side of Venus.
For instance, VIRTIS imaged clouds over Alpha Regio, an area close to the equator. This area is characterised by a series of troughs, ridges, and faults that are oriented in many directions, with surface features that can be up to 4 kilometres high. There might be a connection between the surface topography and the local atmospheric turbulence which is observed in this area. This and other hypotheses are being investigated by the Venus Express science teams using data from several instruments.
Actually, the Venusian topography may play an important role also in the global atmospheric dynamics. Understanding this surface-atmosphere connection is one of the major objectives of Venus Express-something to be verified in the whole course of the mission.
European Space Agency
The images presented with this article focus on Venusian atmospheric turbulences and cloud features, whose shape and size vary with planetary latitudes. At the equator, clouds are irregular and assume a peculiar 'bubble'-shape. At mid latitudes they are more regular and streaky, running almost parallel to the direction of the super rotation with speed reaching more than 400 kilometres per hour. Going higher up in latitude, in the polar region, the clouds end up in entering a vortex shape.
With its multi-wavelength eyes, VIRTIS can observe the atmosphere and the cloud layers not only at different depths, but also both in the day- and night-side of the planet - a characteristic that allows an overall assessment of the 'environmental' causes that can be at the origin of such an atmospheric complexity.
At the equator, the extremely violent winds of the super-rotation are in constant 'battle' with other kinds of local turbulences, or 'regional' winds, creating very complex cloud structures.
One type of regional wind is due to the strong flux of radiation from the Sun reaching the atmosphere of the planet on the day-side. This flux heats up the atmosphere creating convective cells, where masses of warm air move upwards and generate local turbulence and winds.
On the night-side there is obviously no flux from the Sun, but the clouds' shape and the wind dynamics are somehow similar to that we see on the day-side. So, scientists are currently trying to understand if there is any mechanism other than 'convection' responsible for the equatorial turbulences, both on the day- and night-side of Venus.
For instance, VIRTIS imaged clouds over Alpha Regio, an area close to the equator. This area is characterised by a series of troughs, ridges, and faults that are oriented in many directions, with surface features that can be up to 4 kilometres high. There might be a connection between the surface topography and the local atmospheric turbulence which is observed in this area. This and other hypotheses are being investigated by the Venus Express science teams using data from several instruments.
Actually, the Venusian topography may play an important role also in the global atmospheric dynamics. Understanding this surface-atmosphere connection is one of the major objectives of Venus Express-something to be verified in the whole course of the mission.
European Space Agency
Venus Express Current Events and Venus Express News RSSNew map hints at Venus's wet, volcanic past
Venus Express has charted the first map of Venus's southern hemisphere at infrared wavelengths. The new map hints that our neighbouring world may once have been more Earth-like, with both, a plate tectonics system and an ocean of water.
Where did Venus's water go?
Venus Express has made the first detection of an atmospheric loss process on Venus's day-side. Last year, the spacecraft revealed that most of the lost atmosphere escapes from the night-side.
Venus comes to life at wavelengths invisible to human eyes
A pale yellow-green dot to the human eye, Earth's twin planet comes to life in the ultraviolet and the infrared. New images taken by instruments on board ESA's Venus Express provide insight into the turbulent atmosphere of our neighbouring planet.
Key molecule discovered in Venus's atmosphere
Venus Express has detected the molecule hydroxyl on another planet for the first time. This detection gives scientists an important new tool to unlock the workings of Venus's dense atmosphere.
Plan to identify watery Earth-like planets develops
Astronomers are looking to identify Earth-like watery worlds circling distant stars from a glint of light seen through an optical space telescope and a mathematical method developed by researchers at Penn State and the University of Hawaii.
Venus Express reboots the search for active volcanoes on Venus
ESA's Venus Express has measured a highly variable quantity of the volcanic gas sulphur dioxide in the atmosphere of Venus. Scientists must now decide whether this is evidence for active volcanoes on Venus, or linked to a hitherto unknown mechanism affecting the upper atmosphere.
Mars and Venus are surprisingly similar
Using two ESA spacecraft, planetary scientists are watching the atmospheres of Mars and Venus being stripped away into space. The simultaneous observations by Mars Express and Venus Express give scientists the data they need to investigate the evolution of the two planets' atmospheres.
The light and dark of Venus
Venus Express has revealed a planet of extraordinarily changeable and extremely large-scale weather. Bright hazes appear in a matter of days, reaching from the south pole to the low southern latitudes and disappearing just as quickly.
Basque Country University researchers publish two articles in Nature on latest discoveries on Venus
Nature journal has published a series of articles devoted to the new discoveries by the European Space Agency's (ESA) Venus Express space probe made on our neighbouring planet.
Setting stars reveal planetary secrets
Watching the stars set from the surface of the Earth may be a romantic pastime but when a spacecraft does it from orbit, it can reveal hidden details about a planet's atmosphere.
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Colonization of Venus: Venus, Bone decalcification, Venus Express, Terraforming of Venus, Venera 5, Venera 6, Venera 7, Venera 8, Venera 9, Venera 10, ... Venera 14, Skyhook (structure), Vega program by John McBrewster (Editor), Frederic P. Miller (Editor), Agnes F. Vandome (Editor) Colonization of Venus - Venus, Bone decalcification, Venus Express, Terraforming of Venus, Venera 5, Venera 6, Venera 7, Venera 8, Venera 9, Venera 10, Venera 11, Venera 12, Venera 13, Venera 14, Skyhook (structure), Vega program |
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