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Winds in Venus’ Lower Mesosphere

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 March 2016

Thomas Widemann
Affiliation:
LESIA, Observatoire de Paris-Meudon, 92195 Meudon, France
Emmanuel Lellouch
Affiliation:
LESIA, Observatoire de Paris-Meudon, 92195 Meudon, France

Extract

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Dynamics of Venus’ mesosphere (70-110 km) is characterized by the coexistence of two different wind regimes: (1) between 70 and 85 km the vertical amplitude decrease of Venus’ zonal retrograde super-rotation; (2) between 85 and 110 km, a stable, sub-solar to anti-solar (SSAS) flow, driven by solar EUV heating. On July 7-14, 2001 and July 31 – August 4, 2002 we observed Venus with the Aurélie spectrometer on the 1.5-m telescope at Observatoire de Haute-Provence, France. The spectra cover the visible 8660-8730 Å range, in the 5v3 band of 12C16O2, at a resolving power of about 120,000. Seven regions were observed on Venus’ illuminated side at ~ 75° phase angle. About 28 lines from the P and R branches of the 5v3 band were detected and used for wind velocity measurements with an accuracy of 15 to 25 ms-1.

Type
II. Special Scientific Sessions
Copyright
Copyright © Astronomical Society of Pacific 2005