Jupiter: New estimates of mean zonal flow at the cloud level

In order to reexamine the magnitude differences of the Jovian atmosphere's jets, as determined by Voyager 1 and 2 images, a novel approach is used to ascertain the zonal mean east-west component of motion. This technique is based on digital pattern matching, and is applied on pairs of mapped images to yield a profile of the mean zonal component that reproduces the exact locations of the easterly and westerly jets between + and 60 deg latitude. Results were obtained for all of the Voyager 1 and 2 cylindrical mosaics; the correlation coefficient between Voyagers 1 and 2 in mean zonal flow between + and - 60 deg latitude, determined from violet filter mosaics, is 0.998

Temporal Evolution of SL-9 Impact Sites on Jupiter and Global Maps of Jupiter from Multi-Observatory Visible and Infrared Images

The objective of this research was to investigate the temporal behavior of the impact features on Jupiter created by the fragments of the Shoemaker Levy-9 comet that collided with the planet in July 1994. The primary observations used in the study were ground based images of Jupiter acquired from the Swedish Solar Vacuum Tube on the island of La Palma in the Canary Islands. The measurement of position of the impact features in images acquired immediately after the impact over a period of a few days revealed that the apparent drift rates were too high and that a repetitive pattern could be seen in the longitude position on successive rotations. This could be explained only by the fact that the measured longitudes of the impact sites were being affected by parallax due to a significant elevation of the impact debris above the nominal cloud top altitude value used for image navigation. Once the apparent positions are analyzed as a function of the meridian angle, the parallax equation can be used to infer the height of the impact features above the cloud deck, once the true impact position (longitude) for the feature is known. Due to their inherent high spatial resolution, the HST measurements of the impact site locations have been accepted widely. However, these suffer from the parallax themselves since few of them were obtained at central meridian. Ground based imaging have the potential to improve this knowledge as they do observe most of the impact sites on either side of the central meridian, except for the degraded resolution. Measurements over a large number of images enables us to minimize the position error through regression and thus estimate both the actual impact site location devoid of parallax bias, and also of the altitude level of the impact debris above the cloud deck. With rapid imaging there is the potential to examine the time evolution of the altitude level. Several hundred ground based images were processed, navigated and subjected to the impact site location measurements. HST images were also acquired and used to calibrate the results and to improve the sample. The resources available enabled an in-depth study only of impact site A, however, many more images have since become available through the global network observations through Lowell Observatory

McIDAS-eXplorer: A version of McIDAS for planetary applications

McIDAS-eXplorer is a set of software tools developed for analysis of planetary data published by the Planetary Data System on CD-ROM's. It is built upon McIDAS-X, an environment which has been in use nearly two decades now for earth weather satellite data applications in research and routine operations. The environment allows convenient access, navigation, analysis, display, and animation of planetary data by utilizing the full calibration data accompanying the planetary data. Support currently exists for Voyager images of the giant planets and their satellites; Magellan radar images (F-MIDR and C-MIDR's, global map products (GxDR's), and altimetry data (ARCDR's)); Galileo SSI images of the earth, moon, and Venus; Viking Mars images and MDIM's as well as most earth based telescopic images of solar system objects (FITS). The NAIF/JPL SPICE kernels are used for image navigation when available. For data without the SPICE kernels (such as the bulk of the Voyager Jupiter and Saturn imagery and Pioneer Orbiter images of Venus), tools based on NAIF toolkit allow the user to navigate the images interactively. Multiple navigation types can be attached to a given image (e.g., for ring navigation and planet navigation in the same image). Tools are available to perform common image processing tasks such as digital filtering, cartographic mapping, map overlays, and data extraction. It is also possible to have different planetary radii for an object such as Venus which requires a different radius for the surface and for the cloud level. A graphical user interface based on Tel-Tk scripting language is provided (UNIX only at present) for using the environment and also to provide on-line help. It is possible for end users to add applications of their own to the environment at any time

Venus Atmospheric Thermal Structure and Radiative Balance

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Exploring Venus with Balloons - Science Objectives and Mission Architectures for Small and Medium-Class Missions

This presentation was part of the session : Current Planetary Probe Science and TechnologySixth International Planetary Probe WorkshopFollowing the trailblazing flights of the 1985 twin Soviet VEGA balloons, missions to fly in the skies of Venus have been proposed to both NASA's Discovery Program and ESA's Cosmic Visions amd are currently being planned for NASA's next Frontiers Mission opportunity. Such missions will answer fundamental science issues highlighted in a variety of high-level NASA-authorized science documents in recent years, including the Decadal Study, various NASA roadmaps, and recommendations coming out of the Venus Exploration Analysis Group (VEXAG). Such missions would in particular address key questions of Venus's origin, evolution, and current state, including detailed measurements of (1) trace gases associated with Venus's active photo- and thermo-chemistry and (2) measurements of vertical motions and local temperature which characterize convective and wave processes. As an example of what can be done with small and medium class missions (less than $900M and$500M, respectively), the Venus Aerostatic-Lift Observatories for in-situ Research (VALOR) Discovery and New Frontiers mission concepts will be discussed. Floating in Venus's rapid windstream near an altitude of 55 km, VALOR's twin balloon-borne aerostats will sample rare gases and trace chemicals and measure vertical and horizontal motions and cloud aerosols within Venus's dynamic middle cloud layer. Each balloon will explore a distinctive dynamical/meteorological region within Venus's energetic atmosphere as each circles the globe for over a week, with one drifting in the cloudy north polar region and the other flying in the less-cloudy but more convective temperate region. The New Frontiers concept would carry several drop sondes that would provide vertical profiles from 55 km down to the surface of temperature, pressure, winds, and the abundances of key reactive gases including SO2, CO, and H2O. In addition, each drop sonde would obtain stereoscopic images and spectra of the surface. Each of these VALOR missions would test a variety of scenarios for the origin, formation, and evolution of Venus by sampling all the noble gases and their isotopes, especially the heaviest elements never reliably measured previously, xenon and krypton. Riding the gravity and planetary waves of Venus a la the VEGA balloons in 1985, the VALOR balloons would sample in particular the chemistry and dynamics of Venus's sulfur-cloud meteorology. Tracked by an array of Earth-based telescopes, zonal, meridional, and vertical winds would be measured with unprecedented precision. Such measurements will help in developing our fundamental understanding of (1) the circulation of Venus, including the role of waves in powering the planet's poorly-understood super-rotation, (2) the nature of Venus's sulfur cycle, key to Venus's current climate, and (3) how Earth's neighbor formed and evolved over the aeons.NAS

SAEVe (Seismic and Atmospheric Exploration of Venus): A Long-Lived Lander Concept for Venus

Many crucial geophysical and atmospheric science investigations at Venus require operations on the surface for an entire solar day. Until recently this was not achievable, but new developments in high temperature electronics have now made months long operations on the Venus surface possible even with smallsat class missions. Here we describe a study of a long-lived Venus lander called SAEVe, for Seismic and Atmospheric Exploration of Venus: this was one of the concepts selected in 2017 under NASA's Planetary Science Deep Space SmallSat Studies (PSDS3) call

Lidar Measurements of Wind and Cloud Around Venus from an Orbiting or Floating/flying Platform

Given the presence of clouds and haze in the upper portion of the Venus atmosphere, it is reasonable to consider a Doppler wind lidar (DWL) for making remote measurements of the 3-dimensional winds within the tops of clouds and the overlying haze layer. Assuming an orbit altitude of 250 kilometers and cloud tops at 60 kilometers (within the upper cloud layer), an initial performance assessment of an orbiting DWL was made using a numerical instrument and atmospheres model developed for both Earth and Mars. It is reasonable to expect vertical profiles of the 3-dimensional wind speed with 1 kilometer vertical resolution and horizontal spacing of 25 kilometers to several 100 kilometers depending upon the desired integration times. These profiles would begin somewhere just below the tops of the highest clouds and extend into the overlying haze layer to some to-be-determined height. Getting multiple layers of cloud returns is also possible with no negative impact on velocity measurement accuracy. The knowledge and expertise for developing coherent Doppler wind lidar technologies and techniques, for Earth related mission at NASA Langley Research Center is being leveraged to develop an appropriate system suitable for wind measurement around Venus. We are considering a fiber-laser-based lidar system of high efficiency and smaller size and advancing the technology level to meet the requirements for DWL system for Venus from an orbiting or floating/flying platform. This presentation will describe the concept, simulation and technology development plan for wind and cloud measurements on Venus