The astronomers revealed that the discontinuity was able to propagate for a few hours to regarding 70 km above the surface of Venus, in the upper clouds.
Spanish astronomers carried out the first detailed study of the evolution of the discontinuity of the clouds of Venus during more than 100 continuous days. This is a gigantic atmospheric wave, with the appearance of a ‘tsunami’, which propagates rapidly in the deepest clouds of the planet. Scientists believe that this ‘tsunami’ may be playing a very important role in accelerating Venus’ atmosphere, communicated this Friday.
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In general, in regions where the winds have the same or greater speed than a wave, they act as a wall or physical ‘barrier’ that interrupts the propagation of that wave. In this way, the discontinuity tries to propagate upwards from the deep clouds, but on Venus the winds gradually increase with height, blocking its path and causing its eventual dissipation.
Something really “amazing”
However, the study revealed that the discontinuity was able to propagate for a few hours to regarding 70 km above the surface of Venus, in the upper clouds. “It is surprising, because until now the discontinuity appeared ‘trapped’ in the deepest clouds and we had never observed it at such a height,” explains Javier Peralta, a researcher at the University of Seville and a member of the Akatsuki mission, from the Space Agency of Japan, which allowed us to observe the highest clouds of Venus.
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The experts were surprised when they measured the winds in the high clouds, for during their observations they found that they were unusually several times slower than the discontinuity itself. This fact made it possible to explain how the discontinuity might propagate to higher altitudes, since, since there were only weak winds in the heights, it might travel through more atmospheric regions until it found areas as fast as itself and dissipated.
“Measuring the winds on Venus is critical to trying to explain why Venus’ atmosphere spins 60 times faster than the surface. This atmospheric phenomenon is known as superrotation. It also occurs on Saturn’s moon Titan and on many exoplanets, but following more than half a century of research we still cannot satisfactorily explain it,” Peralta stressed. This article was published en Astronomy & Astrophysics.
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