Publication Abstracts

Knibbe et al. 1995

Knibbe, W.J., J.F. de Haan, J. Hovenier, and L.D. Travis, 1995: Spatial variations of Venus' cloud properties derived from polarimetry. In Atmospheric Sensing and Modelling, 29 Sep. 1994, Rome, Proc. SPIE, vol. 2311, p. 47, doi:10.1117/12.198584.

We study satellite polarization data of the clouds of Venus obtained by the Pioneer Venus Orbiter from 1978 through 1990. We present a new method for comparing these data to results of exact multiple scattering computations. This method has been applied to the analysis of a single disk distribution of the polarization at wavelengths 550 and 935 nm, using a simple model for the atmosphere of Venus. We find little variation in the cloud particle size distribution for the equatorial part of the disk. For this region, the effective particle radius is about 1.0 micrometers and the width of the size distribution decreases when approaching the terminator. However, our analysis of observations at higher latitudes suggests that for these regions a different explanation is needed. Here, an upper haze layer with smaller particles than those of the underlying cloud but having the same composition explains the observations well. The optical thickness of this haze is between 0.1 and 0.5 for an effective haze particle radius of 0.40 micrometers.

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BibTeX Citation

@inproceedings{kn02200p,
  author={Knibbe, W. J. and de Haan, J. F. and Hovenier, J. and Travis, L. D.},
  title={Spatial variations of Venus' cloud properties derived from polarimetry},
  booktitle={Atmospheric Sensing and Modelling, 29 Sep. 1994, Rome},
  year={1995},
  volume={2311},
  pages={47},
  series={Proc. SPIE},
  doi={10.1117/12.198584},
}

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RIS Citation

TY  - CPAPER
ID  - kn02200p
AU  - Knibbe, W. J.
AU  - de Haan, J. F.
AU  - Hovenier, J.
AU  - Travis, L. D.
PY  - 1995
TI  - Spatial variations of Venus' cloud properties derived from polarimetry
BT  - Atmospheric Sensing and Modelling, 29 Sep. 1994, Rome
T3  - Proc. SPIE
VL  - 2311
SP  - 47
DO  - 10.1117/12.198584
ER  -

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