Chemical Transport in the Atmosphere of Venus

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Venus has been studied by spacecraft since the early 1970s. Most recently, Venus has been observed by the space mission Venus Express from 2006 to 2014 and is now continuously observed by the space mission Akatsuki. Using the data collected across these decades and using new, state-of-the-art models of the circulation of the atmospheres of planets, the Principal Investigator will model the gases and particles such as SO2, OH, and haze at Venus. He will look at how chemical composition and atmospheric flow combine in Venus' atmosphere. He will compare model results to observations by looking at the chemistry and atmospheric motion tied to location on Venus' surface, height above Venus' surface, and time. This project serves the national interest by advancing progress in our understanding of the planet Venus, close in size and location to Earth, and especially its atmosphere. Students will work on all parts of this research including making an animation of the atmosphere of Venus for the Science on a Sphere display.This project will investigate large-scale chemical tracer transport in the atmosphere of Venus from the ground to above 120 km using 1-, 2-, and 3-dimensional photochemical transport models (CTM) that include representations of microphysics and the photochemistry and thermochemistry on Venus. The CTMs will be driven by circulation pattern and eddy dynamics produced in a state-of-the-art 3-D Venus general circulation model. Using observational data, the PI will simulate the chemical tracers including many gaseous species and condensed particles such as SO2, OH radicals, and haze particles and will study the interaction between the Venus chemistry and general circulation patterns such as the zonal superrotation at around 60 km, dayside-to-nightside circulation above 90 km, and the transition region in between. The PI will compare models and measurements for the chemical species distributions from observations in a 4-D fashion (longitude, latitude, altitude and time) to understand further the chemical transport process on Venus.