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| Titel |
Morphology and dynamics of the Venus upper cloud layer as observed by the Venus Monitoring Camera |
| VerfasserIn |
W. J. Markiewicz, D. V. Titov, R. Moissl, N. Ignatiev, S. S. Limaye, H. U. Keller, T. Roatsch, K. D. Matz |
| Konferenz |
EGU General Assembly 2009
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| Medientyp |
Artikel
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| Sprache |
Englisch
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| Digitales Dokument |
PDF |
| Erschienen |
In: GRA - Volume 11 (2009) |
| Datensatznummer |
250028754
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| Zusammenfassung |
| The motion of Venus clouds holds important clues for the understanding of the super-rotation
of its atmosphere. The Venus Monitoring Camera (VMC) on Venus Express (VEX)
spacecraft has been monitoring the upper cloud layer through its ultra-violet (UV) channel
centred at 365 nm. This wavelength corresponds to the spectral feature of a, so far
unidentified, absorber. The VMC UV data show a variety of cloud morphologies produced by
this absorber. Taking advantage of the VMC high resolution imaging (down to 200 m px-1)
and the VEX polar orbit we investigate both global and small scale properties of these clouds
and their temporal and latitudinal variations. The global scale features include equatorial
belts, bright polar bands, and polar caps. The observed small-scale features change in their
appearance from mottled clouds and convective cells at low latitudes to streaky
patterns at middle and high latitudes, indicating the peculiarities of the atmospheric
dynamics across the Venus disc. We find that most of the atmospheric features
observed in the past have substructures, now for the first time resolved by VMC. |
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