Observations of the Ultraviolet Nitric Oxide (NO) Nightglow with SPICAV on Board Venus Express During Stellar Occultations

Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy

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Scientific paper

Some Ultraviolet data of the SPICAV instrument (SPectroscopy for the Investigation of the Characteristics of the Atmosphere of Venus), on board Venus Express spacecraft, currently in orbit around Venus, are presented here. When working in the spectrometric mode with the slit, SPICAV has shown that the Venus night glow contains essentially Lyman- α and Nitric Oxide (NO) emission, well studied by Gérard et al (2008b). What we show here is that when SPICAV is used in the stellar occultation mode (without slit), quite often an emission is present at the limb, in addition to the stellar spectrum. A forward model of the NO emission observed without the slit, when compared to the data, confirms that indeed this limb emission is due to the NO nightglow. This observing mode without the slit is 50 times more sensitive than with the slit, owing to the larger subtended FOV. Therefore, its systematic extraction from stellar occultations will extend the data base of NO emission already collected in the limb spectroscopic mode (Gérard et al.,1981 and 2008b). This emission, due to the recombination of N and O atoms produced on the dayside of Venus, and transported to the night side, allows to study the Solar to Anti Solar thermospheric circulation (above 100 km). The comparaison with the forward model allows to derive the brightness of the emission, the altitude of the peak of emission of the NO layer, and its scale height.

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