Characterization of mesoscale gravity waves in the upper and lower clouds of Venus from VEX-VIRTIS images

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Hauptverfasser: Peralta, Javier, Hueso, Ricardo, Sánchez-Lavega, Agustín, Piccioni, Giuseppe, Lanciano, Orietta, Drossart, Pierre
Format: Recurso digital
Sprache:Englisch
Veröffentlicht: Zenodo 2008
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author Peralta, Javier
Hueso, Ricardo
Sánchez-Lavega, Agustín
Piccioni, Giuseppe
Lanciano, Orietta
Drossart, Pierre
author_facet Peralta, Javier
Hueso, Ricardo
Sánchez-Lavega, Agustín
Piccioni, Giuseppe
Lanciano, Orietta
Drossart, Pierre
contents <p>Images obtained from the Visible and InfraRed Thermal Imaging Spectrometer (VIRTIS)-M instrument onboard Venus Express present visible trains of alternating bands of cloud brightness in two different layers: at the upper cloud tops (~66 km altitude) observed in the dayside hemisphere using reflected ultraviolet light (380 nm) and in the lower cloud (~47 km altitude) observed in the nightside hemisphere using thermal radiation (1.74 μm). The waves are nearly zonal (with the bands perpendicular to latitude circles), have wavelengths of 60-150 km, propagate westward with low phase velocities relative to the zonal flow, and are confined in wave packets of 400 to 1800 km in length. The waves in the lower cloud observed in the infrared are widely distributed around the planet, and their appearance varies widely throughout the VIRTIS data set. The locations of both types of waves seem not correlated with latitude, local times, surface topography, or the structure of the wind. In both cases the characteristics of the waves correspond to gravity waves propagating in confined stable layers of the atmosphere. We examine the properties of these waves in terms of a linear model and perform a simple analysis to discuss the vertical stability of the atmosphere within Venus clouds.</p>
format Recurso digital
id zenodo_https___doi_org_10_1029_2008JE003185
institution Zenodo
language eng
publishDate 2008
publisher Zenodo
record_format zenodo
spellingShingle Characterization of mesoscale gravity waves in the upper and lower clouds of Venus from VEX-VIRTIS images
Peralta, Javier
Hueso, Ricardo
Sánchez-Lavega, Agustín
Piccioni, Giuseppe
Lanciano, Orietta
Drossart, Pierre
<p>Images obtained from the Visible and InfraRed Thermal Imaging Spectrometer (VIRTIS)-M instrument onboard Venus Express present visible trains of alternating bands of cloud brightness in two different layers: at the upper cloud tops (~66 km altitude) observed in the dayside hemisphere using reflected ultraviolet light (380 nm) and in the lower cloud (~47 km altitude) observed in the nightside hemisphere using thermal radiation (1.74 μm). The waves are nearly zonal (with the bands perpendicular to latitude circles), have wavelengths of 60-150 km, propagate westward with low phase velocities relative to the zonal flow, and are confined in wave packets of 400 to 1800 km in length. The waves in the lower cloud observed in the infrared are widely distributed around the planet, and their appearance varies widely throughout the VIRTIS data set. The locations of both types of waves seem not correlated with latitude, local times, surface topography, or the structure of the wind. In both cases the characteristics of the waves correspond to gravity waves propagating in confined stable layers of the atmosphere. We examine the properties of these waves in terms of a linear model and perform a simple analysis to discuss the vertical stability of the atmosphere within Venus clouds.</p>
title Characterization of mesoscale gravity waves in the upper and lower clouds of Venus from VEX-VIRTIS images
url https://doi.org/10.1029/2008JE003185