The puzzling Venusian polar atmospheric structure reproduced by a general circulation model

Hiroki Ando; Norihiko Sugimoto; Masahiro Takagi; Hiroki Kashimura; Takeshi Imamura; Yoshihisa Matsuda

doi:10.1038/ncomms10398

The puzzling Venusian polar atmospheric structure reproduced by a general circulation model

Hiroki Ando, Norihiko Sugimoto, Masahiro Takagi, Hiroki Kashimura, Takeshi Imamura, Yoshihisa Matsuda

Faculty of Law

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

33 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Unlike the polar vortices observed in the Earth, Mars and Titan atmospheres, the observed Venus polar vortex is warmer than the midlatitudes at cloud-top levels (∼65 km). This warm polar vortex is zonally surrounded by a cold latitude band located at ∼60° latitude, which is a unique feature called 'cold collar' in the Venus atmosphere. Although these structures have been observed in numerous previous observations, the formation mechanism is still unknown. Here we perform numerical simulations of the Venus atmospheric circulation using a general circulation model, and succeed in reproducing these puzzling features in close agreement with the observations. The cold collar and warm polar region are attributed to the residual mean meridional circulation enhanced by the thermal tide. The present results strongly suggest that the thermal tide is crucial for the structure of the Venus upper polar atmosphere at and above cloud levels.

Original language	English
Article number	10398
Journal	Nature communications
Volume	7
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms10398
Publication status	Published - 2016 Feb 1

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Chemistry(all)
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology(all)
Physics and Astronomy(all)

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title = "The puzzling Venusian polar atmospheric structure reproduced by a general circulation model",

abstract = "Unlike the polar vortices observed in the Earth, Mars and Titan atmospheres, the observed Venus polar vortex is warmer than the midlatitudes at cloud-top levels (∼65 km). This warm polar vortex is zonally surrounded by a cold latitude band located at ∼60° latitude, which is a unique feature called 'cold collar' in the Venus atmosphere. Although these structures have been observed in numerous previous observations, the formation mechanism is still unknown. Here we perform numerical simulations of the Venus atmospheric circulation using a general circulation model, and succeed in reproducing these puzzling features in close agreement with the observations. The cold collar and warm polar region are attributed to the residual mean meridional circulation enhanced by the thermal tide. The present results strongly suggest that the thermal tide is crucial for the structure of the Venus upper polar atmosphere at and above cloud levels.",

author = "Hiroki Ando and Norihiko Sugimoto and Masahiro Takagi and Hiroki Kashimura and Takeshi Imamura and Yoshihisa Matsuda",

note = "Funding Information: We are grateful to Dr Y.J. Lee, Dr S. Murakami and Dr K. Takaya for the useful suggestions. This study was conducted under the joint research project of the Earth Simulator Center entitled {\textquoteleft}Simulations of Atmospheric General Circulations of Earth-like Planets by AFES{\textquoteright} and partly supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant Number 25400470.",

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T1 - The puzzling Venusian polar atmospheric structure reproduced by a general circulation model

AU - Ando, Hiroki

AU - Sugimoto, Norihiko

AU - Takagi, Masahiro

AU - Kashimura, Hiroki

AU - Imamura, Takeshi

AU - Matsuda, Yoshihisa

N1 - Funding Information: We are grateful to Dr Y.J. Lee, Dr S. Murakami and Dr K. Takaya for the useful suggestions. This study was conducted under the joint research project of the Earth Simulator Center entitled ‘Simulations of Atmospheric General Circulations of Earth-like Planets by AFES’ and partly supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant Number 25400470.

PY - 2016/2/1

Y1 - 2016/2/1

N2 - Unlike the polar vortices observed in the Earth, Mars and Titan atmospheres, the observed Venus polar vortex is warmer than the midlatitudes at cloud-top levels (∼65 km). This warm polar vortex is zonally surrounded by a cold latitude band located at ∼60° latitude, which is a unique feature called 'cold collar' in the Venus atmosphere. Although these structures have been observed in numerous previous observations, the formation mechanism is still unknown. Here we perform numerical simulations of the Venus atmospheric circulation using a general circulation model, and succeed in reproducing these puzzling features in close agreement with the observations. The cold collar and warm polar region are attributed to the residual mean meridional circulation enhanced by the thermal tide. The present results strongly suggest that the thermal tide is crucial for the structure of the Venus upper polar atmosphere at and above cloud levels.

AB - Unlike the polar vortices observed in the Earth, Mars and Titan atmospheres, the observed Venus polar vortex is warmer than the midlatitudes at cloud-top levels (∼65 km). This warm polar vortex is zonally surrounded by a cold latitude band located at ∼60° latitude, which is a unique feature called 'cold collar' in the Venus atmosphere. Although these structures have been observed in numerous previous observations, the formation mechanism is still unknown. Here we perform numerical simulations of the Venus atmospheric circulation using a general circulation model, and succeed in reproducing these puzzling features in close agreement with the observations. The cold collar and warm polar region are attributed to the residual mean meridional circulation enhanced by the thermal tide. The present results strongly suggest that the thermal tide is crucial for the structure of the Venus upper polar atmosphere at and above cloud levels.

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The puzzling Venusian polar atmospheric structure reproduced by a general circulation model

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