Venus lightning - An update

Abstract

The evidence for Venus lightning comes from three distinct sources: the Venera 11-14 landers, the Venera 9 orbiter and the Pioneer Venus orbiter. The largest data set and the one being analyzed most thoroughly at present comes the VLF electric field experiment on PVO spacecraft. Recent results show that the Poynting flux out of the atmosphere is consistent with that expected from a terrestrial sized source of lightning or possibly one much greater. Estimates of the flash rate from the statistics of impulsive signals also points to a source that is stronger than the terrestrial source. Ongoing studies of the polarization of the signals and their properties relative to their direction of propagation as well as a recalibration of the Pioneer Venus star sensor promise to provide continuing information on this phenomenon.