A chaotic long-lived vortex at the southern pole of Venus

Polar vortices are common in the atmospheres of rapidly rotating planets1-4. On Earth and Mars, vortices are generated by surface temperature gradients and their strength is modulated by the seasonal insolation cycle. Slowly rotating Venus lacks pronounced seasonal forcing, but vortices are known to...

ver descrição completa

Detalhes bibliográficos
Autores: Garate-Lopez, I., Hueso, R., Sánchez-Lavega, A., Peralta, J., Piccioni, G., Drossart, P.
Tipo de documento: artigo
Estado:Versión aceptada para publicación
Data de publicação:2013
País:España
Recursos:Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC)
Repositório:DIGITAL.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC
OAI Identifier:oai:digital.csic.es:10261/410186
Acesso em linha:http://hdl.handle.net/10261/410186
Access Level:Acceso aberto
Palavra-chave:Atmospheric forcing
Earth
Insolation
Mars
Morphology
Planetary atmosphere
Polar vortex
Surface temperature
Venus
id ES_6bf6905bf1968bbf2cf5d2112dd5edba
oai_identifier_str oai:digital.csic.es:10261/410186
network_acronym_str ES
network_name_str España
repository_id_str
spelling A chaotic long-lived vortex at the southern pole of VenusGarate-Lopez, I.Hueso, R.Sánchez-Lavega, A.Peralta, J.Piccioni, G.Drossart, P.Atmospheric forcingEarthInsolationMarsMorphologyPlanetary atmospherePolar vortexSurface temperatureVenusPolar vortices are common in the atmospheres of rapidly rotating planets1-4. On Earth and Mars, vortices are generated by surface temperature gradients and their strength is modulated by the seasonal insolation cycle. Slowly rotating Venus lacks pronounced seasonal forcing, but vortices are known to occur at both poles, in an atmosphere that rotates faster than the planet itself5-8. Here we report observations of cloud motions at altitudes of 42 and 63 km above Venus's south pole using infrared images from the VIRTIS instrument onboard the Venus Express spacecraft. We find that the south polar vortex is a long-lived but unpredictable feature. Within the two cloud layers sampled, the centres of rotation of the vortex are rarely aligned vertically and both wander erratically around the pole with velocities of up to 16 m s-1. At the two horizontal levels, the observed cloud morphologies do not correlate with the vorticity of the wind field and change continuously, and vertical and meridional wind shears are also highly variable. We conclude that Venus's south polar vortex is a continuously evolving structure that is at least 20 km high, extending through a quasi-convective turbulent region. © 2013 Macmillan Publishers Limited. All rights reserved.The authors declare no competing financial interests. We wish to thank Y. J. Lee and S. Tellmann for providing VeRa data. We gratefully acknowledge the work of the entire Venus Express team that allowed these data to be obtained. We wish to thank ESA to support the Venus Express mission, ASI (by the contract I/050/10/0), CNES and the other national space agencies supporting the VIRTIS instrument on board. J. Peralta acknowledges support from the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT, grant reference: SFRH/BPD/63036/2009). This work was supported by the Spanish MICIIN project AYA2009-10701 and AYA2012-36666 with FEDER support, Grupos Gobierno Vasco IT-464-07 and UPV/EHU UFI11/55Peer reviewedNature Publishing GroupFundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (Portugal)Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (España)European CommissionConsejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas [https://ror.org/02gfc7t72]2025202520132025info:eu-repo/semantics/articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_6501Postprintinfo:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersionhttp://hdl.handle.net/10261/410186reponame:DIGITAL.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSICinstname:Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC)Inglés#PLACEHOLDER_PARENT_METADATA_VALUE##PLACEHOLDER_PARENT_METADATA_VALUE#info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/MICINN//AYA2009-10701info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/MICINN//AYA2012-36666http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ngeo1764Síinfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccessoai:digital.csic.es:10261/4101862026-05-22T06:33:51Z
dc.title.none.fl_str_mv A chaotic long-lived vortex at the southern pole of Venus
title A chaotic long-lived vortex at the southern pole of Venus
spellingShingle A chaotic long-lived vortex at the southern pole of Venus
Garate-Lopez, I.
Atmospheric forcing
Earth
Insolation
Mars
Morphology
Planetary atmosphere
Polar vortex
Surface temperature
Venus
title_short A chaotic long-lived vortex at the southern pole of Venus
title_full A chaotic long-lived vortex at the southern pole of Venus
title_fullStr A chaotic long-lived vortex at the southern pole of Venus
title_full_unstemmed A chaotic long-lived vortex at the southern pole of Venus
title_sort A chaotic long-lived vortex at the southern pole of Venus
dc.creator.none.fl_str_mv Garate-Lopez, I.
Hueso, R.
Sánchez-Lavega, A.
Peralta, J.
Piccioni, G.
Drossart, P.
author Garate-Lopez, I.
author_facet Garate-Lopez, I.
Hueso, R.
Sánchez-Lavega, A.
Peralta, J.
Piccioni, G.
Drossart, P.
author_role author
author2 Hueso, R.
Sánchez-Lavega, A.
Peralta, J.
Piccioni, G.
Drossart, P.
author2_role author
author
author
author
author
dc.contributor.none.fl_str_mv Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (Portugal)
Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (España)
European Commission
Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas [https://ror.org/02gfc7t72]
dc.subject.none.fl_str_mv Atmospheric forcing
Earth
Insolation
Mars
Morphology
Planetary atmosphere
Polar vortex
Surface temperature
Venus
topic Atmospheric forcing
Earth
Insolation
Mars
Morphology
Planetary atmosphere
Polar vortex
Surface temperature
Venus
description Polar vortices are common in the atmospheres of rapidly rotating planets1-4. On Earth and Mars, vortices are generated by surface temperature gradients and their strength is modulated by the seasonal insolation cycle. Slowly rotating Venus lacks pronounced seasonal forcing, but vortices are known to occur at both poles, in an atmosphere that rotates faster than the planet itself5-8. Here we report observations of cloud motions at altitudes of 42 and 63 km above Venus's south pole using infrared images from the VIRTIS instrument onboard the Venus Express spacecraft. We find that the south polar vortex is a long-lived but unpredictable feature. Within the two cloud layers sampled, the centres of rotation of the vortex are rarely aligned vertically and both wander erratically around the pole with velocities of up to 16 m s-1. At the two horizontal levels, the observed cloud morphologies do not correlate with the vorticity of the wind field and change continuously, and vertical and meridional wind shears are also highly variable. We conclude that Venus's south polar vortex is a continuously evolving structure that is at least 20 km high, extending through a quasi-convective turbulent region. © 2013 Macmillan Publishers Limited. All rights reserved.
publishDate 2013
dc.date.none.fl_str_mv 2013
2025
2025
2025
dc.type.none.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/article
http://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_6501
Postprint
info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersion
format article
status_str acceptedVersion
dc.identifier.none.fl_str_mv http://hdl.handle.net/10261/410186
url http://hdl.handle.net/10261/410186
dc.language.none.fl_str_mv Inglés
language_invalid_str_mv Inglés
dc.relation.none.fl_str_mv #PLACEHOLDER_PARENT_METADATA_VALUE#
#PLACEHOLDER_PARENT_METADATA_VALUE#
info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/MICINN//AYA2009-10701
info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/MICINN//AYA2012-36666
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ngeo1764
Sí
dc.rights.none.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
eu_rights_str_mv openAccess
dc.publisher.none.fl_str_mv Nature Publishing Group
publisher.none.fl_str_mv Nature Publishing Group
dc.source.none.fl_str_mv reponame:DIGITAL.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC
instname:Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC)
instname_str Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC)
reponame_str DIGITAL.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC
collection DIGITAL.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC
repository.name.fl_str_mv
repository.mail.fl_str_mv
_version_ 1869410234619920384
score 15,811543

Registros relacionados