Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy
Scientific paper
Sep 2006
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2006dps....38.2612m&link_type=abstract
American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #38, #26.12; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 38, p.526
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astronomy
Scientific paper
Allen and Crawford (1984) discovered regions with unexpectedly high brightness temperatures on the nightside of Venus in the near infrared. It was soon realized that variability in the optical thickness of the middle and lower cloud decks was directly responsible for the variability of these high brightness temperature features. The middle and lower cloud deck is sustained by a radiative-dynamical feedback whereby heating of the cloud base by radiation from the lower atmosphere destabilizes the lapse rate within the cloud region. We have developed a model from the CU/NASA Ames Community Aerosol and Radiation Model for Atmospheres (CARMA) which accurately simulates the middle and lower cloud deck by means of a combined microphysical, radiative transfer, and turbulent dynamical model. Breaking waves which dump energy and momentum at the cloud base might be responsible for the break-up of the Venus cloud. We demonstrate the sensitivity of our simulated Venus cloud to changes in the static stability and to changes in the temperature profile. We also explore the effects of breaking waves on the simulated Venus cloud. We find that a loss of mixing can produce cloud optical thickness consistent with observations on a timescale of several weeks. Changes in temperature act far more quickly but warmings of approximately 10 K are required to significantly reduce the cloud optical thickness.
McGouldrick Kevin
Toon Brian O.
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