Search Publications
The sun's influence on the vertical structure of the ionospheres of Venus and Mars
Girazian, Zachary Richard James
The ionospheres of Venus and Mars are important components of the planet-space boundary that play a major role in atmospheric escape processes. Characterization of these regions reveals the physical processes that control them and provides a foundation for more detailed studies of chemistry, dynamics, and energetics. At both planets the ionosphere…
The effects of solar flares, coronal mass ejections, and co-rotating interaction regions on the Venusian 5577 A oxygen green line
Gray, Candace
The Venusian 5577.3 A OI (1S - 1D) (oxygen green line) nightglow emission is known to be highly temporally variable. The reason for this variability is unknown. We propose that the emission is due to electron precipitation from intense solar storms. For my dissertation, I observed the Venusian green line after solar flares, coronal mass ejections …
Interplanetary Field Enhancements: The Interaction between Solar Wind and Interplanetary Dusty Plasma Released by Interplanetary Collisions
Lai, Hairong
Interplanetary field enhancements (IFEs) are unique large-scale structures in the solar wind. During IFEs, the magnetic-field strength is significantly enhanced with little perturbation in the solar-wind plasma. Early studies showed that IFEs move at nearly the solar-wind speed and some IFEs detected at 0.72AU by Pioneer Venus Orbiter (PVO) are as…
Oxygen Loss from Venus and the Influence of Extreme Solar Wind Conditions
McEnulty, Tess Rose
The purpose of this dissertation is to expand our understanding of oxygen ion escape to space from Venus and its dependence on extreme solar wind conditions found during interplanetary coronal mass ejections (ICMEs). The solar wind dynamic pressure outside of the Venus bow shock did not exceed ∼12 nPa, during 2006-2009, while the solar wind dynami…
On ion escape from Venus
Jarvinen, Riku
This doctoral thesis is about the solar wind influence on the atmosphere of the planet Venus. A numerical plasma simulation model was developed for the interaction between Venus and the solar wind to study the erosion of charged particles from the Venus upper atmosphere. The developed model is a hybrid simulation where ions are treated as particle…
On ion escape from Venus
Jarvinen, R.
This doctoral thesis is about the solar wind influence on the atmosphere of the planet Venus. A numerical plasma simulation model was developed for the interaction between Venus and the solar wind to study the erosion of charged particles from the Venus upper atmosphere. The developed model is a hybrid simulation where ions are treated as particle…
Cyclostrophic wind in the mesosphere of Venus from Venus Express observations
Piccialli, Arianna
The dynamics of Venus mesosphere was investigated by using observations from the Venus Express (VEx) mission. In the frame of this work, zonal thermal winds were derived from the VIRTIS (Visible and Infrared Thermal Imaging Spectrometer) and VeRa (Radio Science Experiment) temperature soundings by applying a special approximation of the thermal wi…
Study and Implementation of the End-to-End Data Pipeline for the Virtis Imaging Spectrometer Onboard Venus Express: "From Science Operations Planning to Data Archiving and Higher Level Processing"
Cardesín Moinelo, Alejandro
This PhD Thesis describes the activities performed during the Research Program undertaken for two years at the Istituto Nazionale di AstroFisica in Rome, Italy, as active member of the VIRTIS Technical and Scientific Team, and one additional year at the European Space Astronomy Center in Madrid, Spain, as member of the Mars Express Science Ground …
Analysis of low frequency whistler wave occurrences in the night-side Venus ionosphere
White, Harold Glenn
This body of work deals with a detailed analysis of plasma, magnetic, and electric field data from Pioneer Venus Orbiter (PVO) to determine if the data are consistent with the possibility of lightning on Venus. This has been a strong topic of debate in the planetary physics community. In a recent Nature article [Ingersoll, 2007], Ingersoll provide…
Microphysics and radiative-dynamical feedback in the near infrared brightness features in the Venus clouds
McGouldrick, Kevin Bartholomew
The goal of this thesis is to understand the causes of the holes that form in the Venus condensational clouds; and to determine the mechanisms that are responsible for their subsequent evolution. Near Infrared observations of the nightside of Venus reveal regions of high brightness temperatures. These regions of high brightness temperatures are ca…