Towards Understanding the Climate of Venus

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-viii

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2. Introduction

   • Lennart Bengtsson

   Pages 1-4

3. What Do We Know About Venus?

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 5-5

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4. What do we know about Venus?

   1. History of Venus Observations

      • Roger-Maurice Bonnet, David Grinspoon, Angelo Pio Rossi

      Pages 7-16

   2. The Surface and Atmosphere of Venus: Evolution and Present State

      • David Grinspoon

      Pages 17-22

   3. Radiative Energy Balance in the Venus Atmosphere

      • Dmitrij V. Titov, Giuseppe Piccioni, Pierre Drossart, Wojciech J. Markiewicz

      Pages 23-53

   4. Atmospheric Circulation and Dynamics

      • Sanjay S. Limaye, Miriam Rengel

      Pages 55-70

5. Modeling the Atmospheric Circulation of Venus

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 71-71

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6. Modeling the atmospheric circulation of Venus

   1. The Dynamics and Circulation of Venus Atmosphere

      • Peter L. Read

      Pages 73-110

   2. Modeling Efforts

      • Stephen R. Lewis, Jonathan Dawson, Sebastien Lebonnois, Masaru Yamamoto

      Pages 111-127

   3. Models of Venus Atmosphere

      • Sebastien Lebonnois, Christopher Lee, Masaru Yamamoto, Jonathan Dawson, Stephen R. Lewis, Joao Mendonca et al.

      Pages 129-156

   4. Comparing Earth and Venus

      • Hauke Schmidt

      Pages 157-167

7. Outlook

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 169-169

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   2. Future Prospects

      • Håkan Svedhem, David Grinspoon

      Pages 171-185

ESA’s Venus Express Mission has monitored Venus since April 2006, and scientists worldwide have used mathematical models to investigate its atmosphere and model its circulation. This book summarizes recent work to explore and understand the climate of the planet through a research program under the auspices of the International Space Science Institute (ISSI) in Bern, Switzerland. Some of the unique elements that are discussed are the anomalies with Venus’ surface temperature (the huge greenhouse effect causes the surface to rise to 460°C, without which would plummet as low as -40°C), its unusual lack of solar radiation (despite being closer to the Sun, Venus receives less solar radiation than Earth due to its dense cloud cover reflecting 76% back) and the juxtaposition of its atmosphere and planetary rotation (wind speeds can climb up to 200 m/s, much faster than Venus’ sidereal day of 243 Earth-days).

• History Venus Observations
• Modeling Planetary Atmospheres
• Venus Atmosphere Modeling
• Venus Climate Model
• Venus Express Mission
• Venus Greenhouse Effect
• Venus Super-Rotation
• Venus Temperature Anomalies

• International Space Science Institute, Bern, Switzerland

  Lennart Bengtsson, Roger-Maurice Bonnet

• , Department of Space Science, Denver Museum of Nature and Science, Denver, USA

  David Grinspoon

• Peninsular House, Risk Management Solutions Ltd, London, United Kingdom

  Symeon Koumoutsaris

• Laboratoire de Meterologie Dynamique, Paris, France

  Sebastien Lebonnois

• ESA-ESTEC, Noordwijk, Netherlands

  Dmitri Titov

Prof. Bengtsson got his Fil.lic. at the Meteorology Department at the University of Stockholm, Sweden in 1964. He has been a Docent at the Stockholm University in Sweden since 1978. In 2001, he became a Professor/Senior Scientist at the Environmental Systems Science Centre at the University of Reading, UK. In 2008, Prof. Bengtsson was named Director of Earth Science at ISSI in Bern, Switzerland. He has been awarded several times, most recently in 2009 when he received the Silver Medal of the European Meteorological Society. He is also an Honorary Member of the Royal Meteorological Society in the UK, and an Alfred Wegener Medal recipient and Honorary member of the EGU.

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