A bow-shaped thermal structure traveling upstream of the zonal wind flow of Venus atmosphere

The Longwave Infrared Camera (LIR) onboard the Japanese Venus orbiter Akatsuki acquires a snap shot of Venus in the middle infrared region, and provides a brightness temperature distribution at the cloud-top altitudes of about 65 km. Hundreds of images taken by LIR have been transferred to the ground since the successful Venus orbit insertion of Akatsuki on Dec. 7, 2015. Here we report that a bow shaped thermal structure extending from the northern high latitudes to the southern high latitudes was found in the brightness temperature map on Dec. 7, 2015, and that it lasted for four days at least surprisingly at almost same geographical position. The bow shape structure looks symmetrical with the equator, and consists of a high temperature region in east or upstream of the background strong westward wind or the super rotation of the Venus atmosphere followed by a low temperature region in west with an amplitude of 5 K. It appeared close to the evening terminator in the dayside, and seems not to have stayed in the same local time rather to have co-rotated with the slowly rotating ground where the western part of Aphrodite Continent was below the center of the bow shape. Meridionally aligned dark filaments similar to the bow shape structure in shape but in much smaller scale were also identified in the brightness temperature map on Dec. 7, and they propagated upstream of the zonal wind as well. The bow shape structure disappeared when LIR observed the same local time and longitude in the earliest opportunity on Jan. 16, 2016. Similar events, though their amplitudes were less than 1 K, were found on Apr. 15 and 26, 2016, but they appeared in different local times and longitudes. A simulation of a gravity wave generated in the lower atmosphere and propagating upward reproduces the observed bow shape structure. The bow shape structure could be a signature of transferring momentum from the ground to the upper atmosphere.