Venus coordinated campaign

This wiki page is intended to support the coming coordinated Venus campaign of 2010, to give an overview of teams and techniques involved and to serve as a tool for synchronized observations between VEx, Akatsuki with specific input or "wish list" from the modeling community.

The main drive of our coordinated ground-based activity is to study the dynamics of the Venus mesosphere (70-120 km) and lower thermosphere ( > 120 km) using techniques that can only be used from the Earth's ground (e.g. Doppler wind measurements on the day and night side of Venus, minor species distribution and abundance, requiring high spectral resolution in the visible, infrared and sub-millimeter range). Ground-based observations also bring a capability for uninterrupted monitoring of atmospheric structures and wave activity as well as other rapidly varying phenomena.

In recent meetings (Koeln, Brussels, Tokyo) we pointed out science objectives than can be reached out of significant coordination between ground-based and in-orbit measurements, such as continuous O2 1.27µm airglow emission mapping in both hemispheres, effects of planetary-scale waves on the nightglow distribution; strongly variable winds direction and amplitude in sub-mm CO and 10-µm non-LTE CO2 using IR heterodyne on the dayside, and their coupling with thermal field measurements (VEx/SPICAV and VeRa), as well as constrains on the vertical extent of cyclostrophic balance in the mesosphere.

Map (under construction)

• 2010 Venus Coordinated Campaign telescope sites

Instrumentation and Techniques

Link on the table: Instrumentation and Techniques

Observations and Operation Planning

Link on the table: Observations and Operation Planning

In-orbit observations

Venus Express

Instruments

• ASPERA : Analyser of Space Plasma and Energetic Atoms

Neutral and ionised plasma analysis

• MAG : Venus Express Magnetometer

Magnetic field measurements

• SPICAV/SOIR : Ultraviolet and Infrared Atmospheric Spectrometer

Atmospheric spectrometry by star or Sun occultation

• VeRa : Venus Radio Science Experiment

Radio sounding of atmosphere

• VIRTIS : Ultraviolet/Visible/Near-Infrared mapping spectrometer

Spectrographic mapping of atmosphere and surface

• VMC : Venus Monitoring Camera

Ultraviolet and visible imaging

Akatsuki

The Project

The Venus Climate Orbiter mission (PLANET-C), one of the future planetary missions of Japan, aims at understanding the atmospheric circulation of Venus. Meteorological information will be obtained by globally mapping clouds and minor constituents successively with 4 cameras at ultraviolet and infrared wavelengths, detecting lightning with a high-speed imager, and observing the vertical structure of the atmosphere with radio science technique. The equatorial elongated orbit with westward revolution fits the observations of the movement and temporal variation of the Venusian atmosphere which rotates westward. The systematic, continuous imaging observations will provide us with an unprecedented large dataset of the Venusian atmospheric dynamics. Additional targets of the mission are the exploration of the ground surface and the observation of zodiacal light. The mission will complement the ESA's Venus Express, which also explores the Venusian environment with different approaches.

extract of: http://www.stp.isas.jaxa.jp/venus/top_english.html

The project, a link to JAXA

Instrumentation and Techniques

• IR1

1.01µm cloud (day-night), surface (nightside)

• IR2

1.73, 2.26, 2.32 (near-IR) 2.02 (CO2), 1.65µm

• UVI 283, 365 nm

SO2 - UV absorber (dayside)

• LIR

10 µm cloud top (day/nightside)

• LAC

777, 551, 553, 558, 630 nm O2/O airglow (night) lightning (night)

More about the Akatsuki Instruments