ESA - Venus Express - Complex meteorology at Venus

Europe goes to Venus

Tribute to the cryptic planet Penetrating an impenetrable world Past missions to Venus

About Venus Express

Venus Express mission facts Venus Express objectives The spacecraft Orbiter instruments The launcher Operating Venus Express

About Venus

Venusian geography The surface Acid clouds and lightning Greenhouse effect, clouds and winds Venus compared to Earth

Meet the team

International collaboration Project Manager: An interview with Don McCoy Project Scientist: An interview with Håkan Svedhem Launch Campaign Manager: An interview with Michael Witting Spacecraft Operations Manager: An interview with Andrea Accomazzo Venus Express Flight Control Team Principal Investigators

Multimedia

Venus Express images Venus Express videos VideoTalk 3D Flash 'model'Build a model (pdf)Animations Wallpapers Screensavers

Services

Comments

Article Images

Complex meteorology at Venus

13 October 2006

Back to article

Radiation from below the Venusian cloud deck

Download:

HI-RES JPEG (Size: 352 kb)

HI-RES TIFF (Size: 686 kb)

The false-colour view is the composite of three infrared images acquired by the Ultraviolet, Visible and Near-Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (VIRTIS) on board ESA's Venus Express on 22 July 2006, at a time interval of about 30 minutes from each other and from a distance of about 65 000 kilometres over the planet's surface. Venus was in the night side.

The image, taken at a wavelength of 1.7-micrometre, shows the thermal radiation emitted from about 15-20 kilometres altitude. The brighter the colour (towards white), the more radiation comes from the surface, so the less cloudy the region in the line of sight between the view and the spacecraft is.

Credits: ESA/VIRTIS/INAF-IASF/Obs. de Paris-LESIA

Back to article

Download:

HI-RES JPEG (Size: 95 kb)

HI-RES TIFF (Size: 188 kb)

This picture of the Venusian atmosphere is the 'negative' of a night-side infrared image acquired by the VIRTIS instrument on board ESA's Venus Express on 29 July 2006, from a distance of about 65 000 kilometres from the surface.

At the centre of the image, taken at 2.3-micrometre wavelength, it is possible to see a large cloud extending toward the bottom-right part of the view. The cloud is about 2000 kilometres long and 500 kilometres wide. It presents the peculiar elongated shape of clouds at Venus, which is due to high-speed winds.

The very cloudy region visible at the top-right of the image is situated beyond 60º South latitude, and represents the transition to the region where the atmosphere is dominated by the effects of the powerful South double polar vortex.

Credits: ESA/VIRTIS/INAF-IASF/Obs. de Paris-LESIA

Feature

ESA astronaut C. Nicollier on voyaging to Venus VOI highlights and press conference

ESApod: Venus Express

VOI updates

Venus Express’ initial orbit matches expectations Venus Express 'talks' to Earth Venus Express main engine burn ended Venus Express reappears from behind Venus Pre-planned thrill - Venus Express disappears behind Venus Venus Express main engine burn starts Venus Express slews and prepares to ‘brake’Venus Orbit Insertion timeline Looking at Venus

ESA’s Venus Express to reach final destination

Flying over the cloudy world – science updates from Venus Express Double vortex at Venus South Pole unveiled!Venus Express has reached final orbit Unexpected detail in first-ever Venus south pole images Venus within ESA probe reach And now… straight to Venus!Successful Venus Express main engine test First light for the Venus Monitoring Camera Venus Express performs flawlessly, LEOP complete Venus Express mission operations update Venus Express en route to probe the planet's hidden mysteries