Ground based observers have on 5/6th June 2012 the last opportunity of the
century to watch the passage of Venus across the solar disk from Earth. Venus
transits have traditionally provided unique insight into the Venus atmosphere
through the refraction halo that appears at the planet outer terminator near
ingress/egress. Much more recently, Venus transits have attracted renewed
interest because the technique of transits is being successfully applied to the
characterization of extrasolar planet atmospheres. The current work
investigates theoretically the interaction of sunlight and the Venus atmosphere
through the full range of transit phases, as observed from Earth and from a
remote distance. Our model predictions quantify the relevant atmospheric
phenomena, thereby assisting the observers of the event in the interpretation
of measurements and the extrapolation to the exoplanet case. Our approach
relies on the numerical integration of the radiative transfer equation, and
includes refraction, multiple scattering, atmospheric extinction and solar limb
darkening, as well as an up to date description of the Venus atmosphere. We
produce synthetic images of the planet terminator during ingress/egress that
demonstrate the evolving shape, brightness and chromaticity of the halo.
Guidelines are offered for the investigation of the planet upper haze from
vertically-unresolved photometric measurements. In this respect, the comparison
with measurements from the 2004 transit appears encouraging. We also show
integrated lightcurves of the Venus/Sun system at various phases during transit
and calculate the respective Venus-Sun integrated transmission spectra. The
comparison of the model predictions to those for a Venus-like planet free of
haze and clouds (and therefore a closer terrestrial analogue) complements the
discussion and sets the conclusions into a broader perspective.Comment: 14 pages; 14 figures; Submitted on 02/06/2012; A&A, accepted for
publication on 30/08/201
