Wind speeds in Venus's cloud layers
Date: 18 September 2008
Satellite: Venus Express
Depicts: Wind speeds at three altitudes based on VIRTIS data
Copyright: A. Sánchez-Lavega et al. 2008
These two graphs show the averaged wind speeds in the southern hemisphere of Venus as a function of latitude for both the zonal winds, U (A, left) and meridional winds, V (B, right). The spatial and temporal averages of the wind speeds are derived from VIRTIS data recorded between April 2006 (arrival of Venus Express at Venus) and July 2007.
The three curves in each graph show the wind speed in three different altitude ranges in the cloud layers. These were derived by tracking the movement of cloud features at three different wavelengths:
| Colour | Lambda (μm) |
Altitudes (km) |
Atmospheric Region |
|
Blue |
0.38 | 62-70 |
Top of upper cloud layer |
|
Purple |
0.98 | 58-64 |
Base of upper cloud layer |
|
Red |
1.74 | 44-48 |
Lower cloud layer |
Error bars for the 0.98 μm profile are not drawn for clarity but are similar to the other profiles.
Last Update: 1 September 2019
