Discovered unknown jet in Venusian middle-lower atmosphere
By measuring wind field with images observed by Venus Climate Orbiter AKATSUKI that can see middle and lower atmosphere through the thick upper cloud, it is found that wind in the lower to the middle cloud layer (altitude 45 - 60 km) flows like a jet located around the equator at a certain time in 2016, and it was named "equatorial jet". So far, it has been considered that wind speeds in this altitude range were distributed with highly uniform in horizontal and with only small temporal variation. However, the existence of unexpectedly large variation of the wind around equator has been discovered by the study using AKATSUKI's observational data for the first time.
The rotation speed of Venusian atmosphere of about 70 km altitude rapidly increases with altitude from the surface, and it is much faster than the speed of the planet at the surface. This is called "super-rotation" whose mechanism is still unknown. By taking the formation of equatorial jet discovered this time into theories and numerical simulations, it is expected to reveal the mystery of the super-rotation.
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