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Variations of water vapor and cloud top altitude in the Venus' mesosphere from SPICAV/VEx observations

Variations of water vapor and cloud top altitude in the Venus' mesosphere from SPICAV/VEx observations

Publication date: 02 August 2016

Authors: Fedorova, A., et al.

Journal: Icarus
Volume: 275
Page: 143-162
Year: 2016

Copyright: © 2016 Elsevier Inc.

Published online 19 April 2016

SPICAV VIS-IR spectrometer on-board the Venus Express mission measured the H2O abundance above Venus' clouds in the 1.38 µm band, and provided an estimation of the cloud top altitude based on CO2 bands in the range of 1.4–1.6 µm. The H2O content and the cloud top altitude have been retrieved for the complete Venus Express dataset from 2006 to 2014 taking into account multiple scattering in the cloudy atmosphere. The cloud top altitude, corresponding to unit nadir aerosol optical depth at 1.48 µm, varies from 68 to 73 km at latitudes from 40°S to 40°N with an average of 70.2 ± 0.8 km assuming the aerosol scale height of 4 km. In high northern latitudes, the cloud top decreases to 62–68 km. The altitude of formation of water lines ranges from 59 to 66 km. The H2O mixing ratio at low latitudes (20°S-20°N) is equal to 6.1 ± 1.2 ppm with variations from 4 to 11 ppm and the effective altitude of 61.9 ± 0.5 km. Between 30° and 50° of latitude in both hemispheres, a local minimum was observed with a value of 5.4 ± 1 ppm corresponding to the effective altitude of 62.1 ± 0.6 km and variations from 3 to 8 ppm. At high latitudes in both hemispheres, the water content varies from 4 to 12 ppm with an average of 7.2 ± 1.4 ppm which corresponds to 60.6 ± 0.5 km. Observed variations of water vapor within a factor of 2-3 on the short timescale appreciably exceed individual measurement errors and could be explained as a real variation of the mixing ratio or/and possible variations of the cloud opacity within the clouds. The maximum of water at lower latitudes supports a possible convection and injection of water from lower atmospheric layers.
[Remainder of abstract truncated due to character limitations]

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