Sulfur dioxide in the Venus Atmosphere: II. Spatial and temporal variability

Journal article

The vertical distribution of sulfur species in the Venus atmosphere has been investigated and discussed in Part I of this series of papers dealing with the variability of SO 2 on Venus. In this second part, we focus our attention on the spatial (horizontal) and temporal variability exhibited by SO 2 . Appropriate data sets – SPICAV/UV nadir observations from Venus Express, ground-based ALMA and TEXES, as well as UV observation on the Hubble Space Telescope – have been considered for this analysis. High variability both on short-term and short-scale are observed. The long-term trend observed by these instruments shows a succession of rapid increases followed by slow decreases in the SO 2 abundance at the cloud top level, implying that the transport of air from lower altitudes plays an important role. The origins of the larger amplitude short-scale, short-term variability observed at the cloud tops are not yet known but are likely also connected to variations in vertical transport of SO 2 and possibly to variations in the abundance and production and loss of H 2 O, H 2 SO 4 , and S x .

Authors: Vandaele, A; Korablev, O; Belyaev, D; Chamberlain, S; Evdokimova, D

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Journal: Icarus
• Volume: 295
• Pages: 1-15
• Publication date: 2017-05-11
• Acceptance date: 2017-05-02
• DOI: 10.1016/j.icarus.2017.05.001
• EISSN: 1090-2643
• ISSN: 0019-1035
• Keywords: atmospheric model; Venus; reference atmosphere; sulfur cycle