Multi-observatory observations of night-side of Venus at 2.3 micron - atmospheric circulation from tracking of cloud features

Sanjay Limaye1* Johan Warell2, Bhuwan C. Bhatt3, Patrick M. Fry1 and Eliot F. Young4
1Space Science and Engineering Center, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI 53706, US
2Department of Astronomy and Space Physics, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden
3Centre for Research and Education in Science and Technology, Indian Institute of Astrophysics,Hosakote, India
4outhwest Research Institute, Boulder, Colorado, USA

Abstract. Observations of Venus were made during 3 May to 11 May 2004 (117.4o - 125.7o phase angle) and 3 July to 10 July, 2004 (132.5o - 125.1o phase angle) from the 1.2-metre Mt. Abu Telescope at Gurushikhar, Himalayan Chandra Telescope at Mt. Saraswati, Hanle and the Nordic Optical Telescope at La Palma, Canary Islands and the NASA/Infra Red Telescope Facility (IRTF) at Mauna Kea, Hawaii in J and K bands. While the sunlit crescent portion was saturated in the detector, the night-side shows discrete cloud features. These features are seen to evolve over time and are markers of the atmospheric flow at tilda 53 km altitude above the surface. By combining multi-site observations, we are able to make measurements of zonal cloud velocities over baselines that are several hours long and get a better idea of the evolution of the features over time.

Keywords: Venus night-side; near infrared, atmosphere circulation

Download Full Paper

Back to Contents