Pioneer Venus Sounder And Small Probes Nephelometer Instrument

Boris Ragent (1) , Thomas Wong (1) , Jacques-Emile Blamont (2) , Alan Eskovitz (3) , Laurence Harnett (3) , Arpad Pallai (3)

1 ARC - NASA Ames Research Center
2 SA - Service d'aéronomie
3 TRW Inc.

The Nephelometer instrument flown on all four of the probes of the Pioneer Venus mission is described. The instruments functioned well, returning data on the backscattering properties of the Venusian clouds and ambient solar radiation in several wavelength intervals as a function of altitude at four widely separated planetary locations. The design considerations, instrument construction, calibration and performance are discussed.

Domains: Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysic [astro-ph.IM]

Boris Ragent, Thomas Wong, Jacques-Emile Blamont, Alan Eskovitz, Laurence Harnett, et al.. Pioneer Venus Sounder And Small Probes Nephelometer Instrument. IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, 1980, GE-18 (1), pp.111-117. ⟨10.1109/TGRS.1980.350292⟩. ⟨insu-03580816⟩