Other
Scientific paper
Sep 2008
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2008dps....40.4008l&link_type=abstract
American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #40, #40.08; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 40, p.469
Other
Scientific paper
On many occasions, the Venus Monitoring Camera (VMC) on Venus Express has observed several small scale waves or wave trains in high northern latitudes ( 70 to 75°) of Venus for the first time. Such waves were not detected earlier due to a combination of spatial resolution, observed region and duration. Wave trains with different characteristics have been seen at all four wavelengths used by the VMC (centered at 365, 513. 935 and 1010nm with 40, 50, 70 and 20 nm) in and are consistently in the same area on multiple consecutive orbits. Many are similar in appearance to ripples with wavelengths 5 to10 km with extents of some tens of km while others appear as thin straight lines, similar to the Circum Equatorial Belts (CEB) seen previously from Mariner 10 and Pioneer Venus missions at low latitudes. These are distinct from the fine scale transverse waves on the spiral bands on Venus which have been observed by both the VMC and the Visible Infrared Thermal Imaging Spectrometer (VIRTIS).
In appearance and perhaps origins, these wave trains appear to be similar to gravity waves observed on Earth, particularly in the airglow images. Their detection on Venus confirms the existence of an atmospheric layer with a very stable lapse rate seen in the thermal structure data at an altitude of 65 to 67 km. The triggering mechanism for these waves could be horizontal or vertical wind shear. The contribution of these waves to momentum transport is not known, but likely is insignificant. However, this could be an observational limitation due to the combination of the eccentric orbit of Venus Express and the camera capabilities.
This work has been made possible from a NASA Participating Scientist Grant NNG06GC68G and with the support provided by the VMC Team.
Limaye Sanjay
Markiewicz Wojciech J.
Moissl Richard
Titov Dimitry
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