Venus’s Southern Polar Vortex Reveals Precessing Circulation | Zendy

D. Luz | Zendy; D. L. Berry | Zendy; G. Piccioni | Zendy; P. Drossart | Zendy; R. Politi | Zendy; Colin Wilson | Zendy; S. Érard | Zendy; Fabrizio Nuccilli | Zendy

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Venus’s Southern Polar Vortex Reveals Precessing Circulation

Author(s) -

D. Luz,

D. L. Berry,

G. Piccioni,

P. Drossart,

R. Politi,

Colin Wilson,

S. Érard,

Fabrizio Nuccilli

Publication year - 2011

Publication title -

science

Language(s) - English

Resource type - Journals

SCImago Journal Rank - 12.556

H-Index - 1186

eISSN - 1095-9203

pISSN - 0036-8075

DOI - 10.1126/science.1201629

Subject(s) - venus , orbiter , polar , polar vortex , vortex , astrobiology , geology , circulation (fluid dynamics) , atmospheric circulation , physics , atmospheric sciences , geophysics , astronomy , meteorology , mechanics

Initial images of Venus's south pole by the Venus Express mission have shown the presence of a bright, highly variable vortex, similar to that at the planet's north pole. Using high-resolution infrared measurements of polar winds from the Venus Express Visible and Infrared Thermal Imaging Spectrometer (VIRTIS) instrument, we show the vortex to have a constantly varying internal structure, with a center of rotation displaced from the geographic south pole by ~3 degrees of latitude and that drifts around the pole with a period of 5 to 10 Earth days. This is indicative of a nonsymmetric and varying precession of the polar atmospheric circulation with respect to the planetary axis.

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