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Published July 2018 | public
Journal Article

A changeable day in the life of Venus

Abstract

Navarro and colleagues present simulations of the Venusian atmosphere that show how gravity waves launched above mountains in the afternoon can produce the global-scale, bow-shaped features observed by the Akatsuki spacecraft. These gravity waves can torque the planet, causing its rotation rate to change over the course of a Venusian day. The effect is small, but it may help to explain the different estimates of the length of day measured by past spacecraft.

Additional Information

© 2018 Macmillan Publishers Limited, part of Springer Nature. Published: 18 June 2018.

Errata

In the version of this Sketch-Up originally published, labels describing atmospheric torques acting on Venus were incorrect. The sketch suggested that the speed-up effect of mountain waves is balanced by a slow-down from thermal tides; instead, both mountain waves and thermal tides speed up the rotation, and this effect is balanced by a slow-down from the solar gravitational torque on the solid body, which is transmitted to the atmosphere. This error has now been corrected in the online versions by adjusting the relevant labels; that is, "Mountain waves speed the planet up" has been changed to "Mountain waves and thermal tides speed the planet up", and "Thermal tide slows the planet down" has been changed to "Solar gravitational torques slow the planet down".

Additional details

Created:
August 19, 2023
Modified:
October 23, 2023