Correlations between cloud thickness and sub-cloud water abundance on Venus - Archive ouverte HAL Accéder directement au contenu
Article Dans Une Revue Geophysical Research Letters Année : 2010

Correlations between cloud thickness and sub-cloud water abundance on Venus

Résumé

Past spacecraft observations of Venus have found considerable spatial and temporal variations of water vapour abundance above the clouds. Previous searches for variability below the clouds at 30-45 km altitude found no large scale latitudinal gradients, but lacked the spatial resolution to detect smaller scale variations. Here we interpret results from the VIRTIS imaging spectrometer on Venus Express, remotely sounding at near-infrared `spectral window' wavelengths, as indicating that the water vapour abundance at 30-40 km altitude varies from 22 to 35 ppmv (±4 ppmv). Furthermore, this variability is correlated with cloud opacity, supporting the hypothesis that its genesis is linked to cloud convection. It is also possible to fit the observations without requiring spatial variation of water abundance, but this places a strong constraint on the spectral dependence of the refractive index data assumed for the lower cloud particles, for which there is as yet no supporting evidence.
Fichier principal
Vignette du fichier
Geophysical Research Letters - 2010 - Tsang - Correlations between cloud thickness and sub%u2010cloud water abundance on Venus.pdf (3.04 Mo) Télécharger le fichier
Origine : Fichiers éditeurs autorisés sur une archive ouverte

Dates et versions

hal-03797042 , version 1 (05-10-2022)

Licence

Copyright (Tous droits réservés)

Identifiants

Citer

Constantine C. C. Tsang, Colin F. Wilson, Joanna K. Barstow, Patrick G. J. Irwin, Frederic W. Taylor, et al.. Correlations between cloud thickness and sub-cloud water abundance on Venus. Geophysical Research Letters, 2010, 37, pp.02202. ⟨10.1029/2009GL041770⟩. ⟨hal-03797042⟩
16 Consultations
8 Téléchargements

Altmetric

Partager

Gmail Facebook X LinkedIn More