The EuroVenus project is about furthering our understanding of Venus through co-ordinated analysis of ground-and space-based observations.

In what may be the most spectacular example of this yet, a new paper has been accepted for publication describing observations of Venus by the Hubble Space Telescope, in 2010-2011. Hubble did not take pictures of Venus, but instead used its spectrograph to observe the UV spectrum of the dayside of Venus, measuring sulphur dioxide (SO2) and sulphur monoxide (SO) abundances.

These observations were carefully co-ordinated with Venus Express. Venus Express obtained simultaneous imagery of Venus, using its Venus Monitoring Camera (VMC), and also nearly simultaneous solar occultation observations using the SPICAV-SOIR instrument, which provides vertical profiles of SO2 . The vertical profiling capability of the VEx observations are highly complementary to the horizontal mapping capability of the Hubble Space telescope observations. Simultaneous observations were also performed using the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope, a ground-based telescope operating at sub-mm wavelengths.

And what are the results of these observations? The joint analysis is consistent with the understanding that the large areas of enhancemed of SO2 abundances in the mesosphere are indeed associated with upwelling from the lower atmosphere, rather than just being governed by local photochmeistry. The value of this kind of observation for monitoring SO2 abundances is especially valuable in a post-VEx era.

Further details can be found in the full publication, which can be found at dx.doi.org