Nightside Studies of the Atmosphere of Venus.

Imaging.  The night side of Venus contains several NIR atmospheric windows in which the clouds become thin or transparent, allowing thermal radiation from the hot lower atmosphere to escape.  Imaging and tracking these clouds enables us to measure wind speeds in the lower portion of Venus’ atmosphere, which will contribute to the understanding of its superrotation with respect to the planet’s surface.

Spectroscopy.  Venus’ nightglow is seen in the oxygen green line at 557.7 nm.  After its discovery in 1999 with the Keck telescope, we have detected the green line with the echelle spectrometer at Apache Point and found it to be highly variable.  Suggested production mechanisms for the green line include an interaction between O2 and CO, providing new insight into aeronomy processes on Venus.