Surprises in the South polar vortex in Venus’ atmosphere

[MargaritaMc]

Surprises in the South polar vortex in Venus atmosphere

A group of UPV/EHU-University of the Basque Country astronomers have studied the South pole vortex of the atmosphere of Venus, thanks to the data sent by the Venus Express probe.

"We knew it was a long-term vortex; we also knew that it changes shape every day. But we thought that the centres of the vortex at different altitudes formed only a single tube, but that is not so. Each centre goes its own way, yet the global structure of the atmospheric vortex does not disintegrate," explains Itziar Garate, head researcher and member of the UPV/EHU's Planetary Science Group

http://www.ehu.es/p200-hmencont/en/cont ... /info.html

The south polar vortex of Venus changes shape every day. The images at the top of the figure show the upper cloud of Venus, 65 km above the planet's surface. The images at the bottom depict the vortex 20 km further down showing the vertical extension and variability of the atmospheric phenomenon

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[bystander]

Venus Vortices Go for Chaotic Multi-storey Strolls Around the Poles
Europlanet via AlphaGalileo | via ScienceDaily | NASA Solar System Exploration | 2013 Mar 24

A chaotic long-lived vortex at the southern pole of Venus - I. Garate-Lopez et al

• Nature Geoscience (online 24 Mar 2013) DOI: 10.1038/ngeo1764