Search Publications

Hemispheric asymmetry of the magnetic field wrapping pattern in the Venusian magnetotail

Kallio, E.; Luhmann, J. G.; Russell, C. T. +7 more

We examine statistically the magnetic field in the Venusian magnetotail which is formed by the draping of interplanetary magnetic field lines. Although the near-planet and distant magnetotail regions have been sampled by the various missions to Venus and the general magnetic features of the distant magnetotail are well established, the near wake r…

Correlations between cloud thickness and sub-cloud water abundance on Venus

Drossart, Pierre; Irwin, Patrick G. J.; Piccioni, Giuseppe +6 more

Past spacecraft observations of Venus have found considerable spatial and temporal variations of water vapour abundance above the clouds. Previous searches for variability below the clouds at 30-45 km altitude found no large scale latitudinal gradients, but lacked the spatial resolution to detect smaller scale variations. Here we interpret results…

Venus OH nightglow distribution based on VIRTIS limb observations from Venus Express

Drossart, P.; Piccioni, G.; Gérard, J. -C. +1 more

The full set of VIRTIS-M limb observations of the OH Venus nightglow has been analyzed to determine its characteristics. Based on 3328 limb profiles, we find that the mean peak intensity along the line of sight of the OH(Δv = 1 sequence) is 0.35_-0.21^+0.53 MR and is located at 96.4 ± 5 km. The emission is highly variable and n…

Widely different characteristics of oxygen and hydrogen ion escape from Venus

Kallio, E.; Janhunen, P.; Jarvinen, R. +2 more

We study the solar wind induced escape of O⁺ and H⁺ ions from Venus' atmosphere in the HYB-Venus hybrid simulation. Most of the previous Venus global plasma modelling studies have concentrated only on the O⁺ escape. According to the hybrid simulation, planetary O⁺ and H⁺ ions behave very diffe…