Other
Scientific paper
Mar 1982
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1982phdt........52s&link_type=abstract
Thesis (PH.D.)--STANFORD UNIVERSITY, 1982.Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 43-04, Section: B, page: 1142.
Other
1
Scientific paper
Various radio-analytical techniques have detected microwave opacity in the middle atmosphere of Venus, well above the main carbon dioxide opacity of the lower atmosphere. Consideration of the amount, distribution, and effects of the constituents which produce the main cloud layer at about 50 km altitude, indicate that such cloud-related gases, especially sulfuric acid vapor, are the predominant source of the observed opacity of the middle atmosphere. Theoretical and laboratory studies were made of the microwave absorption from three cloud-related gases: sulfur dioxide, sulfur trioxide, and gaseous sulfuric acid. While the measured absorption from sulfur dioxide under conditions for the middle atmosphere of Venus was found to be 50% larger than suggested by theory, the amount of sulfur dioxide required to explain the opacity as measured by radio occultation exceeded the abundance measured in situ by atmospheric probes, suggesting that there must be another important source of opacity. Sulfur trioxide was tested and found to be relatively transparent, but laboratory measurements of the microwave opacity of gaseous sulfuric acid under Venus atmospheric conditions indicate that it is an exceptionally strong absorber with absorptivity that has a surprisingly weak dependence on radio frequency. Initial theoretical studies also indicate a large absorptivity and weak frequency dependence, although the measured opacity is larger than the computed value, presumably due to deviations from Van Vleck-Weisskopf theory. The absorbing characteristics of sulfuric acid vapor appear to reconcile past inconsistencies among measurements and deductions concerning the constituents of the atmosphere of Venus, and radio occultation, radar reflection, and radio emission measurements of its opacity. The results of the current studies are used with previous data for the absorptivity of water vapor and carbon dioxide to model relative contributions to opacity as a function of height, in a way that is consistent with the measurements of the constituents and absorbing properties of the atmosphere. From the evidence outlined above, it is concluded that sulfuric acid vapor is the principal microwave absorber in the middle atmosphere of Venus. It is suggested that improved radio absorptivity measurements and more detailed laboratory studies could provide important data for investigating the sulfur compound chemistry in the atmosphere of Venus, and that such measurements and studies could have application to the study of atmospheric conditions associated with acid rain on Earth.
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