Direct detection of atomic oxygen on the dayside and nightside of Venus

Heinz-Wilhelm Hübers (), Heiko Richter, Urs U. Graf, Rolf Güsten, Bernd Klein, Jürgen Stutzki and Helmut Wiesemeyer
Additional contact information
Heinz-Wilhelm Hübers: Institute of Optical Sensor Systems
Heiko Richter: Institute of Optical Sensor Systems
Urs U. Graf: I. Physikalisches Institut der Universität zu Köln
Rolf Güsten: Max-Planck-Institut für Radioastronomie
Bernd Klein: Max-Planck-Institut für Radioastronomie
Jürgen Stutzki: I. Physikalisches Institut der Universität zu Köln
Helmut Wiesemeyer: Max-Planck-Institut für Radioastronomie

Nature Communications, 2023, vol. 14, issue 1, 1-7

Abstract: Abstract Atomic oxygen is a key species in the mesosphere and thermosphere of Venus. It peaks in the transition region between the two dominant atmospheric circulation patterns, the retrograde super-rotating zonal flow below 70 km and the subsolar to antisolar flow above 120 km altitude. However, past and current detection methods are indirect and based on measurements of other molecules in combination with photochemical models. Here, we show direct detection of atomic oxygen on the dayside as well as on the nightside of Venus by measuring its ground-state transition at 4.74 THz (63.2 µm). The atomic oxygen is concentrated at altitudes around 100 km with a maximum column density on the dayside where it is generated by photolysis of carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide. This method enables detailed investigations of the Venusian atmosphere in the region between the two atmospheric circulation patterns in support of future space missions to Venus.

Date: 2023
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-42389-x Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:14:y:2023:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-023-42389-x

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-42389-x

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().