The Latest on the Venus Thermospheric General Circulation Model: Capabilities and Simulations
Venus has a complex and dynamic upper atmosphere. This has been observed many times by ground-based, orbiters, probes, and fly-by missions going to other planets. Two over-arching questions are generally asked when examining the Venus upper atmosphere: (1) what creates the complex structure in the atmosphere, and (2) what drives the varying dynamics. A great way to interpret and connect observations to address these questions utilizes numerical modeling; and in the case of the middle and upper atmosphere (above the cloud tops), a 3D hydrodynamic numerical model called the Venus Thermospheric General Circulation Model (VTGCM) can be used. The VTGCM can produce climatological averages of key features in comparison to observations (i.e. nightside temperature, O2 IR nightglow emission). More recently, the VTGCM has been expanded to include new chemical constituents and airglow emissions, as well as new parameterizations to address waves and their impact on the varying global circulation and corresponding airglow distributions.