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Published September 1992 | public
Journal Article Metadata-only

Imaging of Venus from Galileo: Early results and camera performance

Belton, M. J. S.
Gierasch, P.
Klaasen, K. P.
Anger, C. D.
Carr, M. H.
Chapman, C. R.
Davies, M. E.
Greeley, R.
Greenberg, R.
Head, J. W. ORCID icon
Neukum, G.
Pilcher, C. B.
Veverka, J.
Fanale, F. P.
Ingersoll, A. P. ORCID icon
Pollock, J. B.
Morrison, D.
Clary, M. C.
Cunningham, W. ORCID icon
Breneman, H. Herbert

Abstract

Three images of Venus have been returned so far by the Galileo spacecraft following an encounter with the planet on UT February 10, 1990. The images, taken at effective wavelengths of 4200 and 9900 Å, characterize the global motions and distribution of haze near the Venus cloud tops and, at the latter wavelength, deep within the main cloud. Previously undetected markings are clearly seen in the near-infrared image. The global distribution of these features, which have maximum contrasts of 3%, is different from that recorded at short wavelengths. In particular, the "polar collar," which is omnipresent in short wavelength images, is absent at 9900 Å. The maximum contrast in the features at 4200 Å is about 20%. The optical performance of the camera is described and is judged to be nominal.

Additional Information

© 1992 Elsevier Ltd. The Imaging Team acknowledges support from the NASA/JPL Galileo Project for the performance of this work. The scientific design of the SSI Venus experiment was led by P. Gierasch, and the sequence design by H. Breneman. The calibration effort was led by K. Klaasen and M.E. Davies. W. Cunningham first recognized the anomalous behavior of the camera during the execution of the sequence and initiated the steps to correct it. The SSI hardware development was managed by M. Chary. Individuals who have substantially contributed to the results reported here include C. Cunningham, D. Godfrey, P. Helfenstein, S. Howell, P. Thomas, T. Thompson, and L. Wainio. C. Anger acknowledges support from the Canadian National Science and Engineering Research Council and from the Ontario Institute for Space and Terrestrial Science. G. Neukum acknowledges support from the German government. The Planetary Science Institute is a division of Science Applications International Corporation. The National Optical Astronomy Observatories are operated by AURA Inc. under a cooperative agreement with the National Science Foundation.

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August 22, 2023
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