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At least 721 records · Page 40
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1982

An interpretation of the near-ultraviolet absorption spectrum of SO2 - Implications for Venus, Io, and laboratory measurements

Line characteristics of remotely sensed SO2 spectra near the UV are discussed, noting the implications for the interpretation of data gathered by the IUE of Io and ground-based and Pioneer spectra of Venus. It is shown that the ratio of mean line spacing to linewidth is greater than unity, and that fully resolved lines have features consistent with concepts of temperature and pressure broadening. The application of Beer's approximation for the absorption spectra of Venus and Io atmospheres is found to be incorrect. Further, the spectroscopic limit on the SO2 line data from Io observations by the IUE are interpreted as establishing a lower bound on the SO2 in the Io atmosphere. A greater concentration of SO2 in vapor equilibrium may be present in the lower atmosphere. Laboratory measurements to resolve the uncertainties regarding the UV spectroscopic data from Io and Venus are suggested.

Belton, M. J. S.↗
NASA NTRS1982

Comparison of gas dynamic model with steady solar wind flow around Venus

A gas dynamic model for solar wind flow around Venus has been compared with Pioneer Venus orbiter plasma analyzer measurements from times when the solar wind flow seemed steadiest. The comparisons were made near the terminator. When the observed and model bow shock locations are matched, the model agrees fairly well with the observed parameters: the components of the flow velocity and magnetic field, and the proton number density and isotropic temperature. However, the Mach numbers required to fit the observed bow shock locations are less than 2/3 those estimated from the measured parameters of the free-stream flow, because the bow shock locations (near the terminator) are farther from Venus than expected. Sometimes the measured flow speeds appear to be retarded near the ionopause.

Mihalov, J. D.↗
NASA NTRS1983

The interaction of flowing plasmas with planetary ionospheres - A Titan-Venus comparison

Voyager I data from the moon Titan's wake are employed to model the external flow direction and, in comparison with magnetotail observations of Venus, show that the magnetic field may change in response to the presence of flux tubes. The Titan magnetic field was measured at distances as close as 2.7 Titan radii, showing final, unperturbed fields directly southward, while a northern lobe was observed which pointed away from Titan. The central portion of the pattern was displaced radially toward Saturn relative to the direction of corotation. Pioneer Venus orbiter data have shown that Venus, like Titan, is a nonmagnetic body, and both objects have displayed a two-lobe wake field with oppositely oriented fields separated by a neutral sheet and lowered field magnitudes on flux tubes near the dayside ionospheres. It is suggested that the asymmetries in the wake structure are due to coupling of different regions of the wakes with the dayside or nightside ionosphere.

Kivelson, M. G.↗
NASA NTRS1983

Magnetic flux ropes in the Venus ionosphere - Observations and models

Pioneer Venus Orbiter data are used as evidence of naturally occurring magnetic field filamentary structures which can be described by a flux rope model. The solar wind is interpreted as piling up a magnetic field on the Venus ionosphere, with the incident ram pressure being expressed as magnetic field pressure. Currents flowing at the ionopause shield out the field, allowing magnetic excursions to be observed with magnitudes of tens of nT over an interval of a few seconds. A quantitative assessment is made of the signature expected from a flux rope. It is noted that each excursion of the magnetic field detected by the Orbiter magnetometer was correlated with variations in the three components of the field. A coordinate system is devised which shows that the Venus data is indicative of the presence of flux ropes whose parameters are the coordinates of the system and would yield the excursions observed in the spacecraft crossings of the fields.

Elphic, R. C.↗
NASA NTRS1983

Charge-exchange in the magnetosheaths of Venus and Mars - A comparison

The amount of solar wind absorption due to charge-exchange in the Martian magnetosheath is evaluated and found to be about an order of magnitude less than that in the Venus magnetosheath. This difference might explain the observed difference in the scaled position and shape between the shocks at Venus and Mars. The lower solar wind absorption for Mars is attributable to the less dense hot oxygen corona of Mars compared to Venus.

Russell, C. T.↗
NASA NTRS1983

The clouds of Venus - Sulfuric acid by the lead chamber process

The Pioneer Venus atmospheric probe provided new data on the clouds of Venus. A model consistent with this data involves SO2 being oxidized to H2SO4 by NO(x) in the presence of H2O. NO(x) also forms nitrosylsulfuric acid (NOHSO4) dissolved in the H2SO4 droplets. This acid solution, along with SO2 and perhaps NO2, can explain the UV and visible reflection spectrum of Venus. In the middle and lower clouds, NOHSO4 forms solid particles.

Sill, G. T.↗
NASA NTRS1983

Limits on Venus' SO2 abundance profile from interferometric observations at 3.4 mm wavelength

The role of SO2 in the chemistry of the clouds of Venus has been investigated by deducing its mixing ratio profile in the atmosphere through millimeter wavelength interferometric measurements of the planet's limb darkening. The first zero crossing of the Venus visibility function was measured to be 0.6221 + or - 0.0007 at a wavelength of 3.4 mm, using a reference radius for Venus of 6100 km. This measurement constrains the amount of limb darkening and shows that the high concentrations of SO2 found in the lower atmosphere do not persist above an altitude of 42 km. Thus, a sink for SO2 exists below the level of the lowest cloud deck.

Good, J. C.↗
NASA NTRS1983

Day and night models of the Venus thermosphere

A model atmosphere of Venus for altitudes between 100 and 178 km is presented for the dayside and nightside. Densities of CO2, CO, O, N2, He, and O2 on the dayside, for 0800 and 1600 hours local time, are obtained by simultaneous solution of continuity equations. These equations couple ionospheric and neutral chemistry and the transport processes of molecular and eddy diffusion. Photodissociation and photoionization J coefficients are presented to facilitate the incorporation of chemistry into circulation models of the Venus atmosphere. Midnight densities of CO2 CO, O, N2, He, and N are derived from integration of the continuity equations, subject to specified fluxes. The nightside densities and fluxes are consistent with the observed airglow of NO and O2(1 Delta). The homopause of Venus is located near 133 km on both the dayside and nightside.

Massie, S. T.↗
NASA NTRS1982

Effects of large-scale magnetic fields in the Venus ionosphere

Theoretical models of the ionosphere of Venus have been constructed in the past without due consideration of the fact that the ionosphere is sometimes magnetized. This paper examines some differences between the magnetized and unmagnetized dayside Venus ionosphere using the Pioneer Venus Orbiter Langmuir probe and magnetometer data. Particular attention is given to the evaluation of the altitude profiles of the thermal electron heating and comparison of the magnitude of the magnetic force with other forces in the ionosphere. Several examples illustrate how heating profiles are different in the magnetized ionosphere with effective heating below 200 km altitude reduced by orders of magnitude compared to the field-free ionosphere. The force associated with the magnetic field is comparable to other forces in the magnetized ionosphere. The measured plasma density, electron temperature and magnetic field thus suggest that large-scale magnetic fields should be included in future ionosphere models.

Luhmann, J. G.↗
NASA NTRS1983

Basic facts about Venus

Because of the disturbing influence of the earth's atmosphere on terrestrial and airborne telescopy, radiometry, thermal mapping, spectroscopy, polarimetry and radar astronomy of Venus, major improvements in the body of theory concerning that planet, began with the Mariner 2 planetary exploration program in 1962. The effect of spacecraft exploration culminated with the influx of data yielded by the Pioneer Venus and Venera 11 and 12 missions of 1978. Attention is presently given to the quantitative enhancement of widely accepted, basic facts about Venus that has resulted from the analysis of space probe data, together with an overview of the major features of past and planned planetary missions.

Colin, L.↗
NASA NTRS1983

Physics of the interaction of the solar wind with the ionosphere of Venus - Flow/field models

Venus deflects incident solar wind by means of thermal and magnetic pressure, both of which are produced by ionospheric currents that are in turn driven by pressure gradients and electric fields induced in the ionosphere by the flowing magnetized solar wind plasma. The ionospheric currents connect across the ionopause into the ionosheath region, and close on, and behind, the bow shock. The computed ionospheric plasma velocity distribution is found to be spatially asymmetric, with the fastest flow velocities lying perpendicular to the ionospheric magnetic fields. Computations also indicate that the ionosphere is susceptible to an MHD shear instability whose extent and location is a function of external solar wind conditions. The present Venus ionosphere model compares well with in situ Pioneer Venus Orbiter observations.

Cloutier, P. A.↗
NASA NTRS1983

A two-dimensional model of the ionosphere of Venus

While most orbits of the Pioneer Venus Orbiter have indicated a substantial nightside ionosphere, this region virtually disappears, existing only as irregular patches of low density plasma, on those orbits during which the solar wind dynamic pressure is large. There observational results are presently interpreted by means of a two-dimensional theoretical model of the Venus ionosphere in which empirical horizontal velocities are adopted. The degree to which the horizontal transport of ions from day to night can maintain the nightside ionosphere is shown to depend on the flow velocities, together with the ionopause height at the terminator. Attention is also given to the role played by electron precipitation in the support of a nightside ionosphere. Indirect evidence is given for an enhanced deuterium/hydrogen ratio on Venus.

Cravens, T. E.↗
NASA NTRS1983

Factors controlling the location of the Venus bow shock

The location of the Venus bow shock determined from magnetic field measurements during the first and third years of Pioneer Venus orbiter operation is examined and compared with nearly simultaneously obtained interplanetary solar wind data to determine those factors that control the size of the Venus bow shock. The location of the intersection of the bow shock with the terminator that is best determined by the data does not vary significantly between years 1979 and 1981 and is only 16 percent more distant than the Venera 9 and 10 shock when account is taken of solar wind aberration. Alfvenic Mach number and magnetosonic Mach number affect the size of the bow shock significantly. Solar wind dynamic pressure has a lesser effect. No significant asymmetries in the shock shape were found either as a result of the orientation of the clock angle of the IMF in the terminator plane or the angle of the IMF relative to the shock normal.

Tatrallyay, M.↗
NASA NTRS1983

Magnetic field fluctuations in the Venus magnetosheath

Using a model for the convection pattern of the shocked solar wind flow around the Venus obstacle, Pioneer Venus observations of ultra-low-frequency (about 10-40 s period) magnetic field fluctuations in the magnetosheath have been traced along streamlines to the regions of the quasi-parallel bow shock. The periods and polarizations of the sinusoidal fluctuations are similar to those observed upstream of the quasi-parallel bow shock, where streaming superthermal particles are believed to produce MHD waves by a beam-plasma instability. The results suggest that both disturbances at the ionopause at Venus and the earth's magnetopause may be caused by convection of turbulent magnetic fields from the subsolar bow shock when the interplanetary field direction produces a quasi-parallel shock there.

Luhmann, J. G.↗
NASA NTRS1983

Identification of deuterium ions in the ionosphere of Venus

The dominant mass two ion in the ionosphere of Venus is identified as D(+) through analysis of the height variation of (mass two ion)/(H(+)) measured in the chemical equilibrium region by the ion mass spectrometer on the Pioneer Venus Orbiter. This result leads to (D)/(H) = (2.2 + or - 0.6) x 10 to the -2 at the turbopause, which agrees with the ratio measured in the lower atmosphere by the large probe mass spectrometer. The 100-fold deuterium enrichment supports previous suggestions that Venus has lost at least 0.3 percent of a terrestrial ocean.

Hartle, R. E.↗
NASA NTRS1982

Morphology and movements of polarization features on Venus

Ground and spacecraft based polarization observations of Venus detected the signature of the so called 1-micron radius cloud particles that constitute the main cloud deck on Venus, as well as that of sub-micron sized particles that form a haze above this main cloud layer. Whether such observations showed any local clustering or organization in the polarimetry data remained uncertain until the relatively high resolution observations from the Pioneer Venus Orbiter Cloud Photopolarimeter (OCPP) became available. The available polarization data from this instrument was studied to see whether local organization was present, to study the morphology of such features or polarization clouds, and finally, to see if they can be followed in a sequence of observations to study their motions.

Limaye, S. S.↗
NASA NTRS1983

Venus topography: Clue to hot-lithosphere tectonics?

The topography of Venus is studied in order to learn about hot lithosphere tectonic processes of Archean Earth. Except for the difference in H2O abundances (Archaen Earth was wet; modern Venus is very dry), linear zones on Venus may be analogous to the tectonic settings for some Archean greenstone belts.

Mcgill, G. E.↗
NASA NTRS1984

SeaMARC 2 side-scan images of submarine volcanoes: Potential analogues for Venus

The Earth's surface beneath the oceans may be very similar, in terms of ambient pressures, to the surface of Venus. For that reason it is particularly important for geologists studying the surface of Venus to understand the processes which form features on the floors of the oceans. With the SeaMARC 2 seafloor mapping system, it is possible to view a swath of seafloor that is 10 km wide (about 6.2 mi). Side scan images of the Mariana region show that volcanoes of the island arc are more complicated than previously realized and that features of the fore-arc region, which resemble volcanoes morphologically, may result from processes other than volcanism. By comparing data obtained from the ocean floor with radar images of Venus, the geological evolution of that planet may be more fully understood.

Fryer, P.↗