Atmospheric Circulation on Venus - Research Paper Example

The Venus atmosphere is in a condition of vigorous circulation and super-rotation (Hunten, et al. 685). In just 4 days, the entire atmosphere circles the planet which is faster than the sidereal day of 243 days of the planet. The super rotation is supported by the winds and they blow as fast as 100 m/s (360 km/h or 220 mph). Winds move up to 60 times of the rotation of the planet. On the other hand, the speed of wind becomes greatly slower as the elevation from the surface becomes smaller, with the breeze rarely reaching the speed of 10 km/h on the surface.

Anticyclonic structures are near the poles and they are called vortices. Every vortex is double-eyed and exhibits a characteristic S-shaped pattern of clouds. These Venus don’t have a magnetic field. Its ionosphere disconnects the atmosphere from the solar wind and outer space. This layer that is ionized includes the solar magnetic field, providing Venus with a distinct magnetic environment. This is believed to be Venus’s induced magnetosphere. Gases that are lighter including water vapor, keeps on being blown away by the solar wind through the induced magnetotail.

It is believed that Venus’s atmosphere up to around 4 billion years ago was similar to that of the earth containing water on the surface. A runaway greenhouse effect may have been brought by surface water evaporation and subsequent rise of the levels of other greenhouse gases. Despite the severe conditions on the surface, the pressure and temperature of the atmosphere at approximately 50km to 65km above the planet’s surface is around the same as that of the Earth, hence its upper atmosphere almost the same as the earth’s in the Solar System, even more than the Mars’ surface.

Because of the similarity in temperature and pressure and the fact that breathable air is a lifting gas on earth, the upper part of the atmosphere has been proposed as a section for both colonization and