Spatial and Temporal Variability of the 365‐nm Albedo of Venus Observed by the Camera on Board Venus Express ...

• Main Authors: Lee, Yeon Joo, Kopparla, P., Peralta, J., Schröder, S. E., Imamura, T., Kouyama, T., Watanabe, S.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Published: Technische Universität Berlin 2020
• Subjects: 550 Geowissenschaften; Venus; UV; image analysis; observations; clouds; South Pole; Aphrodite; South pole
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.14279/depositonce-11084; https://depositonce.tu-berlin.de/handle/11303/12209

We mapped the distribution of the 365‐nm albedo of the Venus atmosphere over the years 2006–2014, using images acquired by the Venus Monitoring Camera (VMC) on board Venus Express. We selected all images with a global view of Venus to investigate how the albedo depends on longitude. Bertaux et al. (2016, https://doi.org/10.1002/2015JE004958) reported a peak in albedo around 100° longitude and speculated on an association with the Aphrodite Terra mountains. We show that this peak is most likely an artifact, resulting from long‐term albedo variations coupled with considerable temporal gaps in data sampling over longitude. We also used a subset of images to investigate how the albedo depends on local time, selecting only south pole viewing images of the dayside (local times 7–17 hr). Akatsuki observed mountain‐induced waves in the late afternoon at 283 nm and 10 μm (Fukuhara et al., 2017, https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo2873). We expect that the presence of such waves may introduce 365‐nm albedo variations with a ...