Search Publications

Superrotation of Venus' atmosphere analyzed with a full general circulation model

Lebonnois, Sébastien; Hourdin, Frédéric; Eymet, Vincent +3 more

A general circulation model (GCM) has been developed for the Venus atmosphere, from the surface up to 100 km altitude, based on the GCM developed for Earth at our laboratory. Key features of this new GCM include topography, diurnal cycle, dependence of the specific heat on temperature, and a consistent radiative transfer module based on net exchan…

A general circulation model ensemble study of the atmospheric circulation of Venus

Lee, C.; Richardson, M. I.

The response of three numerical model dynamical cores to Venus-like forcing and friction is described in this paper. Each dynamical core simulates a super-rotating atmospheric circulation with equatorial winds of 35 ± 10 m/s, maintained by horizontally propagating eddies leaving the equatorial region and inducing a momentum convergence there. We d…

Thermal structure of Venusian nighttime mesosphere as observed by VIRTIS-Venus Express

Drossart, P.; Piccioni, G.; Lebonnois, S. +5 more

The mapping IR channel of the Visual and Infrared Thermal Imaging Spectrometer (VIRTIS-M) on board the Venus Express spacecraft observes the CO₂ band at 4.3 µm at a spectral resolution adequate to retrieve the atmospheric temperature profiles in the 65-96 km altitude range. Observations acquired in the period June 2006 to July 200…

Densities and temperatures in the Venus mesosphere and lower thermosphere retrieved from SOIR on board Venus Express: Retrieval technique

Vandaele, A. C.; Robert, S.; Wilquet, V. +5 more

The SOIR instrument, flying on board Venus Express, operates in the infrared spectral domain and uses the solar occultation technique to determine the vertical profiles of several key constituents of the Venus atmosphere. The retrieval algorithm is based on the optimal estimation method, and solves the problem simultaneously on all spectra belongi…

Venus' atomic hot oxygen environment

Lammer, H.; Shematovich, V. I.; Macher, W. +6 more

We present a Monte Carlo study of the atomic hot oxygen corona of Venus. In this model we consider elastic, inelastic, and quenching collisions between the traced hot particle and the ambient neutral atmosphere as well as differential cross sections to determine the scattering angle in the collisions. We also include rotational and vibrational exc…