Venus Nearside and Farside Hemispheres Relief Map: Magellan Data as a Source for Mapping

Every 583 days Venus is positioned on lower conjunction relative to the Earth, i.e. when the planet is between the Earth and the Sun. In this position the hemisphere of Venus with the 320E central longitude called nearside turns to the Earth. Accordingly 140E longitude is the central for the farside hemisphere. This situation will be observed at least 600 years. Based on these conditions 320 and 140E longitudes are the central ones for the both hemispheres of the Venus relief map, compiled in the Sternberg State Astronomical Institute. For map compiling the sphere with the radius 6051,8 km was used as a reference surface. The DTM consisted of more than 33 mln. points distributed regularly all along the Venus surface and compiled on the base of the NASA spacecraft Magellan radar (SAR) data was used as a source of height values. By averaging values from the source DTM 6 mln. points were obtained and used then for isolines creation applying spline interpolation methods. The Venus nearside and farside hemispheres relief map is compiled in Lambert equal area azimuth projection. Using this map it is possible to recognize the global relief structures of the planet, where the mountain regions make up 6,3 The relief features names were taken from the Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature (http://planetarynames The spacecrafts landing sites and height marks of some Venus relief structures were marked on the map too.