A mysterious structure of Venusian upper polar atmosphere reproduced by a general circulation model
Abstract
The polar cold collar, a cold band zonally surrounding the warm polar vortex at ~60° latitude, is a unique feature observed at the ~65 km level in the Venus atmosphere. As this structure has been observed in numerous previous observations, the cold collar and warm polar vortex are robust features in the Venus upper atmosphere [1]. We performed numerical simulations of Venus atmospheric circulation using a general circulation model (GCM) named AFES for Venus, and observed that these features are reproduced in close agreement with the observations. The cold collar and warm polar vortex might be contributed to residual mean meridional circulation cl osely related to thermal tides. The present results suggest that the thermal tides might be crucial for the structure of the Venus upper polar atmosphere at and above cloud levels.
- Publication:
-
European Planetary Science Congress
- Pub Date:
- October 2015
- Bibcode:
- 2015EPSC...10...54A