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Dayside temperatures in the Venus upper atmosphere from Venus Express/VIRTIS nadir measurements at 4.3 μm
- Source :
- Astronomy and Astrophysics-A&A, Astronomy and Astrophysics-A&A, EDP Sciences, 2016, 585, pp.A53. ⟨10.1051/0004-6361/201527191⟩, Digital.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC, instname, Astronomy and Astrophysics-A&A, 2016, 585, pp.A53. ⟨10.1051/0004-6361/201527191⟩
- Publication Year :
- 2016
- Publisher :
- HAL CCSD, 2016.
-
Abstract
- In this work, we analysed nadir observations of atmospheric infrared emissions carried out by VIRTIS, a high-resolution spectrometer on board the European spacecraft Venus Express. We focused on the ro-vibrational band of CO at 4.3 μm on the dayside, whose fluorescence originates in the Venus upper mesosphere and above. This is the first time that a systematic sounding of these non-local thermodynamic equilibrium (NLTE) emissions has been carried out in Venus using this geometry. As many as 143,218 spectra have been analysed on the dayside during the period 14/05/2006 to 14/09/2009. We designed an inversion method to obtain the atmospheric temperature from these non-thermal observations, including a NLTE line-by-line forward model and a pre-computed set of spectra for a set of thermal structures and illumination conditions. Our measurements sound a broad region of the upper mesosphere and lower thermosphere of Venus ranging from 10-10 mb (which in the Venus International Reference Atmosphere, VIRA, is approximately 100-150 km during the daytime) and show a maximum around 195 ± 10 K in the subsolar region, decreasing with latitude and local time towards the terminator. This is in qualitative agreement with predictions by a Venus Thermospheric General Circulation Model (VTGCM) after a proper averaging of altitudes for meaningful comparisons, although our temperatures are colder than the model by about 25 K throughout. We estimate a thermal gradient of about 35 K between the subsolar and antisolar points when comparing our data with nightside temperatures measured at similar altitudes by SPICAV, another instrument on Venus Express (VEx). Our data show a stable temperature structure through five years of measurements, but we also found episodes of strong heating/cooling to occur in the subsolar region of less than two days.<br />J.P. and MA.L-V acknowledge the Spanish MICINN for funding support through the CONSOLIDER program >ASTROMOL> CSD2009-00038 and project AYA2011-23552. J.P. also thanks the JAXA International Top Young Fellowship program, GG thanks CNES postdoc contract and A.P. acknowledges funding from the European Union Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under Grant agreement No. 246556.
- Subjects :
- Daytime
010504 meteorology & atmospheric sciences
Radiation mechanisms: non-thermal
Satellites
Data analysis
Planets
Venus
Instrumentation: spectrographs
Astrophysics
Atmospheric sciences
01 natural sciences
Molecular processes
Mesosphere
Atmosphere
Planet
Methods: data analysis
Spectrographs
0103 physical sciences
Nadir
Radiation mechanisms
Planets and satellites: atmospheres
Radiative transfer
spectrographs [Instrumentation]
data analysis [Methods]
010303 astronomy & astrophysics
0105 earth and related environmental sciences
Physics
non-thermal [Radiation mechanisms]
biology
[SDU.ASTR]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Astrophysics [astro-ph]
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Atmospheric temperature
biology.organism_classification
3. Good health
13. Climate action
Space and Planetary Science
atmospheres [Planets and satellites]
Thermosphere
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 00046361
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Astronomy and Astrophysics-A&A, Astronomy and Astrophysics-A&A, EDP Sciences, 2016, 585, pp.A53. ⟨10.1051/0004-6361/201527191⟩, Digital.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC, instname, Astronomy and Astrophysics-A&A, 2016, 585, pp.A53. ⟨10.1051/0004-6361/201527191⟩
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....8353037c80156aad68ac496f2f03dea5