Instantaneous three-dimensional thermal structure of the South Polar Vortex of Venus

The Venus thermal radiation spectrum exhibits the signature of CO2 absorption bands. By means of inversion techniques, those bands enable the retrieval of atmospheric temperature profiles. We have analyzed VIRTIS-M-IR night-side data obtaining high-resolution thermal maps of the Venus south polar region between 55 and 85km altitudes. This analysis is specific to three Venus Express orbits where the vortex presents different dynamical configurations. The cold collar is clearly distinguishable centered at ~62km (~100mbar) altitude level. On average, the cold collar is more than 15K colder than the pole, but its specific temperature varies with time. In the three orbits under investigation the South Polar Vortex appears as a vertically extended hot region close to the pole and squeezed by the cold collar between altitudes 55 and 67km but spreading equatorwards at about 74km. Both the instantaneous temperature maps and their zonal averages show that the top altitude limit of the thermal signature from the vortex is at ~80km altitude, at least on the night-side of the planet. The upper part of the atmosphere (67-85km) is more homogeneous and has long-scale horizontal temperature differences of about 25K over horizontal distances of ~2000km. The lower part (55-67km) shows more fine-scale structure, creating the vortex morphology, with thermal differences of up to about 50K over the same altitude range and ~500km horizontal distances. This lower part of the atmosphere is highly affected by the upper cloud deck, leading to stronger local temperature variations and larger uncertainties in the retrieval. From the temperature maps, we also study the vertical stability of different atmospheric layers for the three vortex configurations. The static stability is always positive (ST>0) in the considered altitude range (55-85km) and in the whole polar vortex. The cold collar is the most vertically stable structure at polar latitudes, while the vortex and sub-polar latitudes show lower stability values. Furthermore, the hot filaments present within the vortex exhibit lower stability values than their surroundings. The layer between 62 and 67km resulted to be the most stable. These results are in good agreement with conclusions from previous radio occultation analyses. © 2014 Elsevier Inc.