An Improved Venus Cloud Model
Abstract
A simple radiative-transfer theory that allows for the change in the absorptions of sulfur and carbon dioxide with depth in the atmosphere of Venus can account simultaneously for (1) the spectral reflectance of Venus; (2) the wavelength dependence of contrast in uv cloud features; (3) the CO 2 line profile; (4) the change in slope of the curve of growth from the 7820- to the 10488-Å CO 2 bands; and (5) the rotational temperature near 246°K found for all CO 2 bands. The model cloud consists of 1-μm sulfuric-acid particles, which are well mixed between about 64 km and the 49-km cloud base found by Veneras 9 and 10, plus an overlapping cloud of much larger sulfur particles that extends down to the 35-km cloud base found by Venera 8. The mixing ratios (by number of molecules) below about 64 km are: H 2O, 2 × 10 -4; H 2SO 4, 10 -5; and sulfur, 10 -4. Although the cloud contains an order of magnitude more sulfur than sulfuric acid, the sulfur particles are an order of magnitude larger, and so have only about 1% of the number density of the acid droplets. The "black-white" radiative-transfer model assumes perfectly conservative scattering above the level (which depends on wavelength) where an absorber becomes "black" due to the local temperature and pressure. So-called homogeneous scattering models are inherently self-contradictory, and are inapplicable to planetary atmospheres; the vertical inhomogeneity is an essential feature that must be modeled correctly. The pressure of CO 2 line formation is about half the pressure in the region where uv markings occur.
- Publication:
-
Icarus
- Pub Date:
- September 1977
- DOI:
- 10.1016/0019-1035(77)90045-8
- Bibcode:
- 1977Icar...32....1Y
- Keywords:
-
- Atmospheric Composition;
- Atmospheric Models;
- Carbon Dioxide Concentration;
- Venus Atmosphere;
- Venus Clouds;
- Aerosols;
- Radiative Transfer;
- Spectral Reflectance;
- Sulfur;
- Sulfuric Acid;
- Temperature Effects;
- Ultraviolet Absorption;
- Venera Satellites;
- Venus Probes