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

Ann Carine Vandaele (1) , Oleg Korablev (2, 3) , Denis Belyaev (2) , Sarah Chamberlain (1) , Daria Evdokimova (2) , Thérèse Encrenaz (4) , Larry Esposito (5) , Kandis Lea Jessup (6, 7) , Franck Lefèvre (8) , Sanjay S. Limaye (9) , Arnaud Mahieux (10, 1) , Emmanuel Marcq (8) , Frank P. Mills (11, 7) , Franck Montmessin (8) , Christopher D. Parkinson (12) , Séverine Robert (1) , Tony Roman (13) , Brad Sandor (13) , Aurélien Stolzenbach (8) , Colin Wilson (14) , Valérie Wilquet (1)

1 BIRA-IASB - Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomy / Institut d'Aéronomie Spatiale de Belgique
2 IKI - Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences
3 MIPT - Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology [Moscow]
4 LESIA - Laboratoire d'études spatiales et d'instrumentation en astrophysique
5 LASP - Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics [Boulder]
6 Department of Space Studies [Boulder]
7 Fenner School of Environment and Society
8 PLANETO - LATMOS
9 SSEC - Space Science and Engineering Center [Madison]
10 FNRS - Fonds National de la Recherche Scientifique [Bruxelles]
11 SSI - Space Science Institute [Boulder]
12 AOSS - Department of Atmospheric, Oceanic, and Space Sciences [Ann Arbor]
13 STSci - Space Telescope Science Institute
14 Clarendon Laboratory [Oxford]

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 SO₂ on Venus. In this second part, we focus our attention on the spatial (horizontal) and temporal variability exhibited by SO2. 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 SO2 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 SO₂ and possibly to variations in the abundance and production and loss of H₂O, H₂SO₄, and S_x.

Domaines: Planétologie et astrophysique de la terre [astro-ph.EP]; Astrophysique stellaire et solaire [astro-ph.SR]

Ann Carine Vandaele, Oleg Korablev, Denis Belyaev, Sarah Chamberlain, Daria Evdokimova, et al.. Sulfur dioxide in the Venus Atmosphere: II. Spatial and temporal variability. Icarus, 2017, 295, pp.1 - 15. ⟨10.1016/j.icarus.2017.05.001⟩. ⟨insu-01528477⟩