. 24/7 Space News .
VENUSIAN HEAT
Swansong experiment sheds light on Venus's polar atmosphere
by Staff Writers
Paris (ESA) Apr 20, 2016


Visualisation of Venus Express during the aerobraking manoeuvre, during which the spacecraft orbited Venus at an altitude of around 130 km from 18 June to 11 July 2014. In the month before, the altitude was gradually reduced from around 200 km to 130 km. Image courtesy ESA-C. Carreau. For a larger version of this image please go here.

Some of the final results sent back by ESA's Venus Express before it plummeted down through the planet's atmosphere have revealed it to be rippling with atmospheric waves - and, at an average temperature of -157C, colder than anywhere on Earth.

As well as telling us much about Venus's previously unexplored polar regions and improving our knowledge of our planetary neighbor, the experiment holds great promise for ESA's ExoMars mission, which is currently winging its way to the Red Planet. The findings were published in the journal Nature Physics on 11 April 2016.

ESA's Venus Express arrived at Venus in 2006. It spent eight years exploring the planet from orbit, vastly outliving the mission's planned duration of 500 days, before running out of fuel. The probe then began its descent, dipping further and further into Venus's atmosphere, before the mission lost contact with Earth (November 2014) and officially ended (December 2014).

However, Venus Express was industrious to the end; low altitude orbits were carried out during the final months of the mission, taking the spacecraft deep enough to experience measurable drag from the atmosphere. Using its onboard accelerometers, the spacecraft measured the deceleration it experienced as it pushed through the planet's upper atmosphere - something known as aerobraking.

"Aerobraking uses atmospheric drag to slow down a spacecraft, so we were able to use the accelerometer measurements to explore the density of Venus's atmosphere," said Ingo Muller-Wodarg of Imperial College London, UK, lead author of the study. "None of Venus Express's instruments were actually designed to make such in-situ atmosphere observations. We only realized in 2006 - after launch! - that we could use the Venus Express spacecraft as a whole to do more science."

When Muller-Wodarg and colleagues gathered their observations Venus Express was orbiting at an altitude of between 130 and 140 kilometers near Venus's polar regions, in a portion of Venus's atmosphere that had never before been studied in situ.

Previously, our understanding of Venus's polar atmosphere was based on observations gathered by NASA's Pioneer Venus probe in the late 1970s. These were of other parts of Venus's atmosphere, near the equator, but extrapolated to the poles to form a complete atmospheric reference model.

These new measurements, taken as part of the Venus Express Atmospheric Drag Experiment (VExADE) from 24 June to 11 July 2014, have now directly tested this model - and reveal several surprises.

For one, the polar atmosphere is up to 70 degrees colder than expected, with an average temperature of -157C (114 K). Recent temperature measurements by Venus Express's SPICAV instrument (SPectroscopy for the Investigation of the Characteristics of the Atmosphere of Venus) are in agreement with this finding.

The polar atmosphere is also not as dense as expected; at 130 and 140 km in altitude, it is 22% and 40% less dense than predicted, respectively. When extrapolated upward in the atmosphere, these differences are consistent with those measured previously by VExADE at 180 km, where densities were found to be lower by almost a factor of two.

"This is in line with our temperature findings, and shows that the existing model paints an overly simplistic picture of Venus's upper atmosphere," added Muller-Wodarg. "These lower densities could be at least partly due to Venus's polar vortices, which are strong wind systems sitting near the planet's poles. Atmospheric winds may be making the density structure both more complicated and more interesting!"

Additionally, the polar region was found to be dominated by strong atmospheric waves, a phenomenon thought to be key in shaping planetary atmospheres - including our own.

"By studying how the atmospheric densities changed and were perturbed over time, we found two different types of wave: atmospheric gravity waves and planetary waves," explained co-author Sean Bruinsma of the Center National D'Etudes Spatiales (CNES), France. "These waves are tricky to study, as you need to be within the atmosphere of the planet itself to measure them properly. Observations from afar can only tell us so much."

Atmospheric gravity waves are similar to waves we see in the ocean, or when throwing stones in a pond, only they travel vertically rather than horizontally. They are essentially a ripple in the density of a planetary atmosphere - they travel from lower to higher altitudes and, as density decreases with altitude, become stronger as they rise. The second type, planetary waves, are associated with a planet's spin as it turns on its axis; these are larger-scale waves with periods of several days.

We experience both types on Earth. Atmospheric gravity waves interfere with weather and cause turbulence, while planetary waves can affect entire weather and pressure systems. Both are known to transfer energy and momentum from one region to another, and so are likely to be hugely influential in shaping the characteristics of a planetary atmosphere.

"We found atmospheric gravity waves to be dominant in Venus's polar atmosphere," added Bruinsma. "Venus Express experienced them as a kind of turbulence, a bit like the vibrations you feel when an aeroplane flies through a rough patch. If we flew through Venus's atmosphere at those heights we wouldn't feel them because the atmosphere just isn't dense enough, but Venus Express's instruments were sensitive enough to detect them."

Venus Express found atmospheric waves at an altitude of 130-140 km that the team think originated from the upper cloud layer in Venus's atmosphere, which sits at and below altitudes of approximately 90 km, and a planetary wave that oscillated with a period of five days. "We checked carefully to ensure that the waves weren't an artifact of our processing," said co-author Jean-Charles Marty, also of CNES.

This is not just a first for Venus Express; while the aerobraking technique has been used for Earth satellites, and was previously used on NASA-led missions to Mars and Venus, it had never before been used on any ESA planetary mission.

However, ESA's ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter, which launched earlier this year, will use a similar technique. "During this activity we will extract similar data about Mars' atmosphere as we did at Venus," added Hakan Svedhem, project scientist for ESA's ExoMars 2016 and Venus Express missions.

"For Mars, the aerobraking phase would last longer than on Venus, for about a year, so we'd get a full dataset of Mars' atmospheric densities and how they vary with season and distance from the Sun," added Svedhem. "This information isn't just relevant to scientists; it's crucial for engineering purposes as well. The Venus study was a highly successful test of a technique that could now be applied to Mars on a larger scale - and to future missions after that."

Research paper: "In Situ Observations of Waves in Venus's Polar Lower Thermosphere with Venus Express Aerobraking" Ingo Muller-Wodarg et al., 2016 April 11, Nature Physics


Thanks for being here;
We need your help. The SpaceDaily news network continues to grow but revenues have never been harder to maintain.

With the rise of Ad Blockers, and Facebook - our traditional revenue sources via quality network advertising continues to decline. And unlike so many other news sites, we don't have a paywall - with those annoying usernames and passwords.

Our news coverage takes time and effort to publish 365 days a year.

If you find our news sites informative and useful then please consider becoming a regular supporter or for now make a one off contribution.
SpaceDaily Contributor
$5 Billed Once


credit card or paypal
SpaceDaily Monthly Supporter
$5 Billed Monthly


paypal only


.


Related Links
Venus Express
Venus Express News and Venusian Science






Comment on this article via your Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, Hotmail login.

Share this article via these popular social media networks
del.icio.usdel.icio.us DiggDigg RedditReddit GoogleGoogle

Previous Report
VENUSIAN HEAT
Japan's space agency says probe now orbiting Venus
Tokyo, Japan (Xinhua) Dec 10, 2015
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) on Wednesday confirmed that its Akatsuki probe had successfully entered its intended orbit around Venus. On Monday this week the space agency said that it had attempted for a second time to put the probe into orbit around Venus to monitor the planet's atmosphere following a failed first attempt five years ago. The probe was first launched in Ma ... read more


VENUSIAN HEAT
Supernova iron found on the moon

Russia to shift all Lunar launches to Vostochny Cosmodrome

Lunar lava tubes could help pave way for human colony

The Moon thought to play a major role in maintaining Earth's magnetic field

VENUSIAN HEAT
Rover mini-walkabout to find clay mineral continues

First light for ExoMars

Russia, Italy plan first bid to explore beneath mars surface in 2018

First joint EU-Russian ExoMars mission to reach Mars orbit Oct 16

VENUSIAN HEAT
NASA blasts Orion Service Module with giant horns

Mobile phone technology propels Starshot's ET space search

Concept's success buoys Commercial Crew's path to flight

A US Department of Space

VENUSIAN HEAT
Chinese scientists develop mammal embryos in space for first time

China begins testing Tiangong-2 space lab

Lessons learned from Tiangong 1

China launches SJ-10 retrievable space science probe

VENUSIAN HEAT
15 years of Europe on the International Space Station

BEAM successfully installed to the International Space Station

NASA to test first expandable habitat on ISS

Dragon and Cygnus To Meet For First Time In Space

VENUSIAN HEAT
Arianespace cooperation with Russia remains smooth amid sanctions

Orbital ATK awarded major sounding rocket contract by NASA

SpaceX lands rocket on ocean platform for first time

SpaceX cargo arrives at crowded space station

VENUSIAN HEAT
University of Massachusetts Lowell PICTURE-B Mission Completed

Lone planetary-mass object found in family of stars

Stars strip away atmospheres of nearby super-Earths

1917 astronomical plate has first-ever evidence of exoplanetary system

VENUSIAN HEAT
Students observe damaged Hitomi X-ray satellite and debris

Why sailing to the stars has suddenly become a realistic goal

Strathclyde-led project to open up space technology to new nations

Progress of simulating dynamics in heterogeneous materials









The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2024 - Space Media Network. All websites are published in Australia and are solely subject to Australian law and governed by Fair Use principals for news reporting and research purposes. AFP, UPI and IANS news wire stories are copyright Agence France-Presse, United Press International and Indo-Asia News Service. ESA news reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. All articles labeled "by Staff Writers" include reports supplied to Space Media Network by industry news wires, PR agencies, corporate press officers and the like. Such articles are individually curated and edited by Space Media Network staff on the basis of the report's information value to our industry and professional readership. Advertising does not imply endorsement, agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Statement Our advertisers use various cookies and the like to deliver the best ad banner available at one time. All network advertising suppliers have GDPR policies (Legitimate Interest) that conform with EU regulations for data collection. By using our websites you consent to cookie based advertising. If you do not agree with this then you must stop using the websites from May 25, 2018. Privacy Statement. Additional information can be found here at About Us.