Shin-ya MURAKAMI

Abstract The planetary missions including the Venus Climate Orbiter ‘Akatsuki’ provide new information on various atmospheric phenomena. Nevertheless, it is difficult to elucidate their three-dimensional structures globally and continuously only from observations because satellite observations are considerably limited in time and space. We constructed the first ‘objective analysis’ of Venus’ atmosphere by assimilating cloud-top horizontal winds on the dayside from the equator to mid-latitudes, which is frequently obtained from Akatsuki's Ultraviolet Imager (UVI). The three-dimensional structures of thermal tides, found recently to play a crucial role in maintaining the super rotation, are greatly improved by the data assimilation. This result is confirmed by comparison with Akatsuki's temperature observations. The momentum transport caused by the thermal tides and other disturbances are also modified by the wind assimilation and agrees well with those estimated from the UVI observations. The assimilated dataset is reliable and will be open to the public along with the Akatsuki observations for further investigation of Venus’ atmospheric phenomena.

<jats:p>At the cloud top of the Venus atmosphere, equatorial Kelvin waves have been observed and are considered to play an important role in the super-rotation. We were able to reproduce the wave in a general circulation model (GCM) by conducting an observing system simulation experiment (OSSE) with the help of a data assimilation system. The synthetic horizontal winds of the Kelvin wave produced by the linear wave propagating model are assimilated at the cloud top (~70 km) in realistic conditions, assuming they are obtained from cloud tracking of ultra-violet images (UVI) taken by the Venus orbiters. It is demonstrated using Eliassen–Palm (EP) fluxes that the reproduced Kelvin wave transports angular momentum and plays an important role in the magnitude and structure of the super-rotation, causing the acceleration and deceleration of zonal wind of ~0.1 m/s day−1. The conditions required in order to reproduce the Kelvin wave have also been investigated. It is desirable to have 24 hourly dayside satellite observations in an equatorial orbit, such as the Akatsuki Venus climate orbiter. The results of this type of data assimilation study will be useful in the planning of future observation missions to the atmospheres of planets.</jats:p>

Abstract An unknown absorber near the cloud-top level of Venus generates a broad absorption feature from the ultraviolet (UV) to visible, peaking around 360 nm, and therefore plays a critical role in the solar energy absorption. We present a quantitative study of the variability of the cloud albedo at 365 nm and its impact on Venus’s solar heating rates based on an analysis of Venus Express and Akatsuki UV images and Hubble Space Telescope and MESSENGER UV spectral data; in this analysis, the calibration correction factor of the UV images of Venus Express (Venus Monitoring Camera) is updated relative to the Hubble and MESSENGER albedo measurements. Our results indicate that the 365 nm albedo varied by a factor of 2 from 2006 to 2017 over the entire planet, producing a 25%–40% change in the low-latitude solar heating rate according to our radiative transfer calculations. Thus, the cloud-top level atmosphere should have experienced considerable solar heating variations over this period. Our global circulation model calculations show that this variable solar heating rate may explain the observed variations of zonal wind from 2006 to 2017. Overlaps in the timescale of the long-term UV albedo and the solar activity variations make it plausible that solar extreme UV intensity and cosmic-ray variations influenced the observed albedo trends. The albedo variations might also be linked with temporal variations of the upper cloud SO₂ gas abundance, which affects the H₂SO₄–H₂O aerosol formation.