Study of large scale gravity waves in the deep atmosphere of Venus
The initial objective of this project is to study, from a theoretical and numerical point of view, large-scale gravity waves in the deep atmosphere of Venus. This study is carried out using a General Circulation Model (GCM) of the Venus atmosphere developed at the Laboratoire de Meteorologie Dynamique (LMD) and based on the work of Sébastien Lebonnois (LMD) and Itziar Garate-Lopez (Universidad del País Vasco). The settings of such a model are very complex and small variations in the study parameters study parameters can have major consequences.
Wave activity below the clouds of Venus with the IPSL Venus GCM
Lebonnois S., Garate-Lopez I., Le Saux A., Plougonven R. (2019), 21st EGU General Assembly
In the current version of the GCM the zonal wind profile above 40 km altitude corresponds to the observations, while below the simulated wind is too weak. Whereas it was the opposite case in a previous version of the GCM. At the same time, we notice between the two versions, the disappearance of waves in the deep atmosphere. It turns out that these are inertial gravity waves whose source is located near the poles, North and South, and that they propagate downwards and towards the equator. The structure of these low frequency waves is strongly influenced by the solar heating and infrared cooling rates in the atmosphere. However, these two parameters are not well known at present because we have few observations that allow us to constrain them.