Interferometric observations of the J(0,1) CO line on Venus: Upper mesospheric winds and CO abundance

Details Interferometric observations of the J(0,1) CO line on Venus: Upper mesospheric winds and CO abundance Interferometric observations of the J(0,1) CO line on Venus: Upper mesospheric winds and CO abundance

Jan 1992

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1992phdt........11s&link_type=abstract

Ph.D. Thesis California Inst. of Tech., Pasadena.

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

Atmospheric Circulation, Atmospheric Composition, Carbon Dioxide, Line Spectra, Microwave Interferometers, Venus (Planet), Doppler Effect, Mesosphere, Millimeter Waves, Planetary Limb, Radio Astronomy, Time Dependence, Wind Measurement

Scientific paper

In 1988, we observed Venus with the millimeter interferometer at the Owens Valley Radio Astronomy Observatory at 115.2712 GHz, the first rotational transition of CO-12. The 33.4 inches diameter disk was spatially resolved by a synthesized beam having a full-width-half-maximum of 2.8 inches. Local time ranged from afternoon on the eastern limb, 2 PM, to just past midnight on the western limb, 12:30 AM. The CO absorption line was finely resolved in frequency by two 32-channel filterbanks having channel widths of 50 kHz and 1 MHz. The 1 MHz and 50 kHz filterbank data were merged to examine the entire CO line. These spectra show a decided local time dependency, becoming progressively deeper from the afternoon to the evening hours. A constrained least-squares inversion algorithm was used to solve for local CO mixing ratio profiles. The resultant profiles appear constant with height at several 10-5 in the late afternoon hours but increase from 10-4 at 80 km to 10-3 at 100 km in the night hours. The highest CO abundances occurred after local 10 PM and centered about the equator between 40 deg N and 40 deg S. This CO distribution fulfills predictions from research based on disk-average CO spectra and photochemical models. Only the late afternoon profiles are surprising, showing small CO abundances rather than expected moderate CO abundances via dayside photodissociation of CO2. The 50 KHz filterbank resolved the inner core of the CO absorption line. This yielded the first measurement of Doppler shifts across Venus caused by strong winds in the upper mesosphere. Calculated weighting functions showed sampling of the mesosphere over a 12 km layer centered at roughly 99 km. The Doppler shifts have a signature which matches that of westward, horizontal winds--being strongly 'blue' on the east/dayside limb, zero near the center, and strongly 'red' on the west/nightside limb of the planet disk. Smoothed wind measurements were best fitted in a least squares sense for a mean zonal flow of 132 plus or minus 10 ms-1. A smaller (less than or equal to 40 ms-1 subsolar-to-antisolar flow may have been superimposed on the dominant zonal flow in 1988. These measurements indicate either a reversal of the mesospheric cyclostrophic breakdown inferred by Pioneer Venus or the influence of uninvestigated dynamical forces.

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