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Science 1 May 1992:
Vol. 256. no. 5057, pp. 652 - 655
DOI: 10.1126/science.256.5057.652
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Articles

A Global Traveling Wave on Venus

Michael D. Smith 1, Peter J. Gierasch 1, and Paul J. Schinder 2

1 Astronomy Department, Space Sciences Building, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853
2 Laboratory for Extraterrestrial Physics, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Goddard Space Flight Center, Code 693, Greenbelt, MD 20771

The dominant large-scale pattern in the clouds of Venus has been described as a "ggr" or "PSgr" and tentatively identified by earlier workers as a Kelvin wave. A detailed calculation of linear wave modes in the Venus atmosphere verifies this identification. Cloud feedback by infrared heating fluctuations is a plausible excitation mechanism. Modulation of the large-scale pattern by the wave is a possible explanation for the Y. Momentum transfer by the wave could contribute to sustaining the general circulation.

Submitted on December 24, 1991
Accepted on March 9, 1992

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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)