High-resolution spectroscopy of Venus: Detection of OCS, upper limit to H2S, and latitudinal variations of CO and HF in the upper cloud layer |
| |
| Authors: | Vladimir A Krasnopolsky |
| |
| Institution: | Department of Physics, Catholic University of America, Washington, DC 20064, USA |
| |
| Abstract: | Venus was observed at 2.4 and 3.7 μm with a resolving power of 4×104 using the long-slit high-resolution spectrograph CSHELL at NASA IRTF. The observations were made along a chord that covered a latitude range of ± 60° at a local time near 8:00. The continuous reflectivity and limb brightening at 2.4 μm are fitted by the clouds with a single scattering albedo 1−a=0.01 and a pure absorbing layer with τ=0.09 above the clouds. The value of 1−a agrees with the refractive index of H2SO4 (85%) and the particle radius of 1 μm. The absorbing layer is similar to that observed by the UV spectrometer at the Pioneer Venus orbiter. However, its nature is puzzling. CO2 was measured using its R32 and R34 lines. The retrieved product of the CO2 abundance and airmass is constant at 1.9 km-atm along the instrument slit in the latitude range of ± 60°. The CO mixing ratio (measured using the P21 line) is rather constant at 70 ppm, and its variations of ∼10% may be caused by atmospheric dynamics. The observed value is higher than the 50 ppm retrieved previously from a spectrum of the full disk, possibly, because of some downward extension of the mesospheric morningside bulge of CO. The observations of the HF R3 line reveal a constant HF mixing ratio of 3.5±0.5 ppb within ± 60° of latitude, which is within the scatter in the previous measurements of HF. OCS has been detected for the first time at the cloud tops by summing 17 lines of the P-branch. The previous detections of OCS refer to the lower atmosphere at 30-35 km. The retrieved OCS mixing ratio varies with a scale height of 1 to 3 km. The mean OCS mixing ratio is ∼2 ppb at 70 km and ∼14 ppb at 64 km. Vertical motions in the atmosphere may change the OCS abundance. The detected OCS should significantly affect Venus' photochemistry. A sensitive search for H2S using its line at 2688.93 cm−1 results in a 3 sigma upper limit of 23 ppb, which is more restrictive than the previous limit of 100 ppb. |
| |
| Keywords: | Venus Venus atmosphere Infrared observations Abundances atmospheres Atmospheres composition |
| 本文献已被 ScienceDirect 等数据库收录！ |
|
