Temperature fields in the Venus mesosphere as observed by VIRTIS-M on Venus Express
Abstract
The entire dataset of nighttime observations of the VIRTIS-M instrument has recently been reprocessed according a new Bayesian algorithm (Grassi et al., 2014, submitted), allowing us to achieve a full self-consistent modelling of the 5.1-4.3 mum spectral region. Retrieved fields include the average cloud deck height, the mean CO mixing ratio at the top of the clouds and the air temperatures between the indicative levels of 65 and 80 km. We review here the main assumptions and uncertainties related to the method, with a discussion on derived retrieval errors. We present also the average fields as a function of latitude and local time, as well as a selection of large synoptic mosaics of temperature fields, derived from several acquisitions during individual orbits.
- Publication:
-
40th COSPAR Scientific Assembly
- Pub Date:
- 2014
- Bibcode:
- 2014cosp...40E1066G