New analysis of images taken by ESA's Venus Express orbiter has revealed surprising details about the remarkable, shape-shifting collar of clouds that swirls around the planet's South Pole (left). This fast-moving feature is all the more surprising since its centre of rotation is typically offset from the geographical pole.
Several planets in the Solar System, including Earth, have been found to possess hurricane-like polar vortices, where clouds and winds rotate rapidly around the poles. Some of these take on strange shapes, such as the hexagonal structure on Saturn.
"The longevity of Saturn's hexagon makes this something special, given that weather on Earth lasts on the order of weeks," said Kunio Sayanagi, a Cassini imaging team associate at the California Institute of Technology. "It's a mystery on par with the strange weather conditions that give rise to the long-lived Great Red Spot of Jupiter."
The hexagon was originally discovered in images taken by the Voyager spacecraft in the early 1980s. It encircles Saturn at about 77 degrees north latitude and has been estimated to have a diameter wider than two Earths. The jet stream is believed to whip along the hexagon at around 100 meters per second (220 miles per hour).
'Now that we can see undulations and circular features instead of blobs in the hexagon, we can start trying to solve some of the unanswered questions about one of the most bizarre things we've ever seen in the solar system, said Kevin Baines, Atmospheric scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory after viewing Cassini images in 2009. Solving these unanswered questions about the hexagon and Venus's vortex will help us answer basic questions about weather that we're still asking about our own planet.
Scientists have known about the presence of swirling clouds around the poles of Venus since they were first imaged by Mariner 10 in 1974. At the same time, it was discovered that Venus' upper winds sweep westwards around the planet in only four days, 60 times faster than the rotation of the solid surface of the planet -- a phenomenon known as superrotation.
Thermal infrared imagery from the Pioneer Venus spacecraft subsequently revealed an enormous depression in the cloud blanket at the North Pole. This relatively warm polar 'hole' was thought to be caused by downward movement of gases, rather like water flowing down a drain. However, detailed examination of the thick clouds and dense atmosphere over the South Pole had to wait until the arrival of Venus Express in April 2006.
During its first orbit around the planet, multi-wavelength observations confirmed for the first time the presence of a huge 'double-eye' atmospheric vortex at the planet's South Pole. Some 2000 km across, it was comparable to the structure that had previously been detected at the North Pole.
This animation is a reconstruction of the motion of the polar atmosphere of Venus, created by taking 3.8 micron radiance maps of the polar region, obtained during May 2007, and applying a shift (a rotation and translation) to the image based on the measured wind speeds. The cross marks the South Pole and the white circle marks the centre of rotation of the polar atmospheric vortex. The outer edge of the figure is the latitude circle of 75 degrees.
Since then, high-resolution infrared measurements obtained by the Visible and Infrared Thermal Imaging Spectrometer (VIRTIS) instrument on Venus Express have revealed that the southern vortex is far more complex than previously believed. The VIRTIS images, taken at wavelengths of 3.8 and 5.0 microns, are ideal for tracking polar features on both the day and night sides of the planet, probing the polar cloud layer at an altitude of about 65 km.
The new observations, reported this week in the journal Science on the Science Express website, show that the vortex has a highly variable shape and internal structure. Images show that its morphology is constantly changing on timescales of less than 24 hours, as a result of differential rotation.
"The southern vortex is very dynamic compared with a hurricane on Earth, which remains stable for several days," said Håkan Svedhem, ESA's Venus Express Project Scientist. "It can take almost any shape, so although it often looks like an 'S' or figure 8, it may become completely irregular, even chaotic, in appearance."
The rapid shape changes indicate complex weather patterns, which are strongly influenced by the fact that the centre of the vortex does not coincide with the geographical pole.
The VIRTIS images show that the speeds of the zonal (east-west) winds change rapidly with latitude, revealing that the vortex is continually being pulled and stretched by wind shear. The apparent reversal of the zonal wind close to the pole is a consequence of the non-alignment of the centre of rotation of the vortex with the planet's rotational axis. This causes an apparent inversion of the wind direction between the pole and the centre of rotation.
The new analysis also reveals that the centre of rotation of the vortex drifts right around the pole over a period of 5-10 Earth days. Its average displacement from the geographical South Pole is about three degrees of latitude, or several hundred kilometres. The data show no evidence of any link between the positions of these 'centroids' and local solar times, as might result from a solar tide-related forcing of the superrotation.
The Venus Express mission is currently funded until 2014, offering further opportunities for in-depth studies of the super-rotating atmosphere and the shape-shifting southern polar vortex. However, its highly elliptical orbit means that Venus Express flies too close to the planet's North Pole for detailed imaging studies of its other polar vortex.
"It seems likely that the northern polar vortex has a similar structure and behaves in a similar way," noted Svedhem. "However, the spacecraft flies very close to the North Pole, so it can only see a small region. Confirmation of the behaviour of the northern vortex will have to wait until future missions."
"Results such as these show how interesting Venus is to study and how important it is to study other worlds," Svedhem added. "They enable us to compare the processes that take place on Venus, a planet with a thick atmosphere, with those on our Earth."
The perplexing mysteries of Saturn's hexagon was first spotted as a hexagonal weather pattern when NASA scientists stitched together Voyager images of Saturn's north pole. Cassini has obtained higher-resolution pictures of the hexagon –- which tells scientists it's a remarkably stable wave in one of the jet streams that remains 30 years later -– but scientists are still not sure what forces maintain the object.
After waiting years for the sun to illuminate Saturn's north pole again, cameras aboard NASA's Cassini spacecraft captured detailed images yet of the intriguing hexagon four times the size of Earth crowning the planet.
Because Saturn does not have land masses or oceans on its surface to complicate weather the way Earth does, its conditions should give scientists a more elementary model to study the physics of circulation patterns and atmosphere, said Kevin Baines, an atmospheric scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., who has studied the hexagon with Cassini's visual and infrared mapping spectrometer.
The images of the hexagon, whose shape is the path of a jet stream flowing around the north pole, reveal concentric circles, curlicues, walls and streamers not seen in previous images.
The last visible-light images of the entire hexagon were captured by NASA's Voyager spacecraft nearly 32 years ago, the last time spring began on Saturn.
After the sunlight faded, darkness shrouded the north pole for 15 years. Much to the delight and bafflement of Cassini scientists, the location and shape of the hexagon in the latest images matched up with what they saw in the Voyager pictures.
Early hexagon images from Voyager and ground-based telescopes suffered from poor viewing perspectives. Cassini, which has been orbiting Saturn since 2004, has a better angle for viewing the north pole. But the long darkness of Saturnian winter hid the hexagon from Cassini's visible-light cameras for years. Infrared instruments, however, were able to obtain images by using heat patterns. Those images showed the hexagon is nearly stationary and extends deep into the atmosphere. They also discovered a hotspot and cyclone in the same region.
Scientists are still trying to figure out what causes the hexagon, where it gets and expels its energy and how it has stayed viable for so long. They plan to search the new images for clues, taking an especially close look at the newly identified waves that radiate from the corners of the hexagon -- where the jet takes its hardest turns -- and the multi-walled structure that extends to the top of Saturn's cloud layer in each of the hexagon's six sides. Scientists are also particularly intrigued by a large dark spot that appeared in a different position in a previous infrared image from Cassini. In the latest images, the spot appears in the 2 o'clock position.
The Daily Galaxy via European Space Agency, JPL/NASA and Science Express
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Image credit top of page: Copyright: ESA/VIRTIS-VenusX. This image shows the polar region of Venus, at a wavelength of 3.8 microns. The centre of rotation is found to be displaced on average by about 300 km from the geographic South Pole.
Jul 17
, 2006
Another “Double-Eye” of Venus
Twin footprints of electric currents from space are apparent at Venus’ south pole—counterparts to the footprints earlier discovered at Venus’ north pole.
The frames of the movie shown above depict the main features of an extraordinary phenomenon on Venus— a “double-eye atmospheric vortex over the south pole.” The movie shows the rotation and the shape variation of the double vortex from April 12 to April 19. The images also show the presence of a collar of colder air around the vortex structure (dark blue), which ESA scientists describe as “possibly due to the recycling of cold air downwards.”
In 1978 the Pioneer Venus Orbiter had already revealed something similar at the north pole of Venus, described as "one of the more remarkable phenomena in the Solar System." The nature of the “double eye” vortexes remains a great mystery to planetary scientists.
A bit of recent history: On discovering the north polar vortex, scientists called it a "giant vortex of surprisingly complex structure and behavior located in the middle atmosphere at the north pole of the planet." The polar vortex on Venus is the hottest spot in the planet’s upper atmosphere. The diameter of the collar around the vortex is about 5000 kilometers, and the temperature contrast between the hottest part of the chevron-shaped dipoles and the coldest part of the collar is about 45 K. The configuration was not expected, and it remains an anomaly for mainstream ("gravity only") theorists.
Electrical theorists, however, say that Venus is highly active electrically due to its unique origin, its comet-like past, and a persistent electrical imbalance with its environment. They claim that astronomers, astrophysicists, and planetary scientists, oblivious to the behavior of electric discharges, are continually straining to explain electricity’s unexpected effects in planetary atmospheres, which they typically seek to describe in terms of heating and the mechanics of wind and water motion.
Leading Electric Universe proponent Wal Thornhill identified the dipolar configuration of the polar vortex as a cross-sectional view of a cosmic electric current. Within the solar system, as in every observed region of space, electric currents flow over vast distances by means of filaments of plasma that tend to organize themselves into "twisted pairs." A common name for this "doubleness" in current-conducting plasmas is a "Birkeland current". All the features shown above suggest that the two hot spots are the footprints of twin Birkeland currents. The "giant vortex" and its "surprisingly complex structure and behavior" are the energetic effect of the twin currents flowing into the planet’s atmosphere at the poles. In fact, the Venusian dipole shows both the configuration and the motion of Birkeland current pairs in plasma discharge experiments and in super-computer simulations, including the surrounding spiral vortex. It is the classic spiral nebula shape.
What baffles mainstream theorists is most often predictable under the electric model. In February 2005, Thornhill predicted that a similar configuration would be found in the region of Venus' south pole. He wrote: "We should expect to see evidence of the twisted pair configuration at both poles of Venus, if the input current is sufficiently strong and this model is correct.” And that is precisely what has now been discovered at the south pole of Venus. The hot spots are due to electrical heating and upwelling of the atmosphere.
While the electric model accounts for the anomalous features of the vortex, the ad hoc explanations of mainstream theorists are at best incomplete. A July report from Geotimes.org reads, "The process that forms Venus' polar vortexes is similar to the process forming Earth's less-defined vortices at its poles, in which a warm equator drives high equatorial winds up toward the cooler poles, where the winds become unstable. On Venus, the vortex resembles the enormous mass of turning air that we see in hurricanes, except that instead of hundreds of kilometers across, Venus' structures span thousands of kilometers."
But this "explanation" ignores the radical difference between Venus and Earth. On Venus, the polar vortex is “inexplicably” hot, and Venus’ rotation (supposedly a primary force driving atmospheric motion) is extremely slow and in the retrograde direction (opposite the normal rotational direction of planets). Thus, Professor Fred Taylor of the University of Oxford Atmospheric, Oceanic and Planetary Physics Department wrote of this latest Venus surprise: "The absence of viable theories which can be tested, or in this case any theory at all, leaves us uncomfortably in doubt as to our basic ability to understand even gross features of planetary atmospheric circulations."
Or perhaps the nature of the phenomena is not as mysterious as it may appear from archaic vantage points. The twisted filaments and other features are a trademark of electrical (Birkeland) currents. And while Taylor expected there could be a similar structure at the south pole, he had no basis for predicting details. Thornhill, on the other hand, could offer a specific interpretation, and a specific prediction, which has now been validated. The ESA reportsays: “ESA's Venus Express data undoubtedly confirm for the first time the presence of a huge 'double-eye' atmospheric vortex at the planet's south pole.”
In his earlier discussion of the north polar dipole, Thornhill noted the irregular motion, which also defies standard models: “The polar dipole has a variable rotation rate and it varies the position of its axis of rotation with respect to that of the planet. It was observed to move 500 km from the Venusian pole in less than a day and return just as quickly. The variable nature of the electrical input to Venus via the Sun and the snaking about of the Birkeland currents explain both these characteristics.” The NASA movie now confirms the same irregularities at the south pole.
We can confidently predict, therefore, that no model of Venus’ atmosphere that ignores the electrical input at Venus’ poles will ever explain the observed structures.
Attempts to model such atmospheric anomalies by references to planetary rotation and increasingly complicated thermodynamics will typically expose one layer of confusion after another. Noting that the upper atmospheric winds on Venus take only four days to complete a rotation, the ESA story continues, “This 'super-rotation,’ combined with the natural recycling of hot air in the atmosphere, would induce the formation of a vortex structure over each pole.”
The authors then ask, “But why two vortexes?” Their limited field of view does not allow them to see that the same force that answers this question answers the question they did not ask: What is driving the spectacular upper atmospheric winds on a planet that barely rotates at all—and in the “wrong” direction? At some point, meteorologists will surely realize that such things will not occur on an electrically isolated body.
Oct 18, 2007
Electric Dipole of Venus
Late pertinent information: The polar caps of Earth have now been shown to be filled with supersonic outflows of plasma. Is this a standard feature of planets?
The diagram above depicts the main features of an extraordinary phenomenon discovered by the Pioneer Venus Orbiter in December 1978. Mission scientists called it a “giant vortex of surprisingly complex structure and behavior located in the middle atmosphere at the north pole of the planet.” They assumed that a similar feature occurred at the south pole as well.*
This polar “vortex” on Venus is the hottest spot in the planet’s upper atmosphere. The diameter of the “collar” around the vortex is about 5000 km and the temperature contrast between the hottest part of the chevron-shaped dipoles and the coldest part of the collar is about 45 K. The configuration was not expected, and it remains an anomaly.
Electric theorists, however, say that Venus is highly active electrically due to its unique origin and comet-like past. They will tell you that astronomers and astrophysicists, having received no training in the behavior of electric discharges, fail to perceive such electrical phenomena, so they are continually straining to explain electricity’s unexpected effects.
To a plasma cosmologist, the polar vortex is a cross-sectional view of a cosmic electric current. Within the solar system, as in every observed region of space, electric currents flow over vast distances by means of filaments of plasma that tend to organize themselves into “twisted pairs.” A common name for this “doubleness” in current-conducting plasmas is “Birkeland currents”. All the features shown above suggest that the two hot spots are the “footprints” of cosmic Birkeland currents. The "giant vortex" and its "surprisingly complex structure and behavior" are the energetic effect of twin currents flowing into the planet’s atmosphere at the poles. In fact, the Venusian dipole shows both the configuration and the motion of Birkeland current pairs in plasma discharge experiments and in super-computer simulations, including the surrounding spiral vortex.
The polar dipole exhibits an enhanced infrared emission, a predictable effect of the dissipation of electrical energy in the upper atmosphere of Venus. It has a variable rotation rate, and the position of its axis of rotation with respect to that of the planet varies as well. It was observed to move 500 km from the Venusian pole in less than a day and return just as quickly. These movements find a ready explanation in the variable nature of the electrical input to Venus via the Sun, and the snaking about of the Birkeland currents—again, a predictable feature of electrical input.
Of particular interest are the linear filaments sometimes seen connecting the opposite sides of the hot spots. Taylor writes: “It is virtually impossible, even with complete license, to begin to speculate in any detail as to what mechanism could give rise to such a curious effect.” But here too the “curious effect” is no surprise to the cosmic electricians. As observed by plasma physicist Anthony Peratt, in simulations of two interacting Birkeland current filaments plasma becomes trapped in the elliptical core between them and produces precisely this effect. (See Physics of the Plasma Universe, page 120.)
It should be noted that Peratt’s simulations were done before the discovery of the Venusian dipole and were offered as an explanation of the electrical forces that produce spiral galaxies, the grandest cosmic plasma discharge phenomena in the universe. But the enormousscalability of plasma phenomena demands comparisons of this sort. The currents that form the Venusian polar dipole exhibit the same features apparent in the formation of a spiral galaxy from the interaction of two intergalactic current streams. The fact that a filamentary connection between two current “hot spots” occurs in laboratory discharge experiments, in computer simulations, on the planet Venus, and in galaxy formation suggests that a more unified picture of the universe is now possible.
This model allows us to predict that the “hot spot” at Saturn’s south pole will exhibit features similar to those found in the Venusian dipole when examined more closely by Cassini. Also, the north pole of Saturn may be expected to exhibit a similar effect. See Saturn's Strange Hot Spot Explained. [ http://www.holoscience.com/news.php?article=1xz2g6tn ]
* F. W. Taylor, “The Venusian Polar Dipole,” Middle Atmosphere of Venus, Akademie-Verlag Berlin, 1990, pp. 93-7. See also: www.pparc.ac.uk/frontiers/pdf/19F1.pdf
Professor F. W. Taylor is Halley Professor of Physics at Oxford University.
** Anthony L. Peratt, "Physics of the Plasma Universe," Springer-Verlag, 1991.
Contributed by Wallace Thornhill.
Jul 19, 2007
Venus the Bright Planet
Venus reflects light from the top of its deep cloud layer, but space probe data indicates that the surface is also highly reflective.
Venus has been the evening star for several months, now. As it begins to move away from its place in twilight skies and take up a position as a familiar dawn companion, the morning star, some interesting facts and puzzling questions about our so-called “sister planet” are worthy of consideration.
The image at the top of the page was sent from Venus by the Magellan spacecraft in September of 1991. Magellan circled Venus in a polar orbit for four years until contact was lost on October 12, 1994. Its primary mission was to use an onboard synthetic aperture radar imaging system and shoot high resolution video of the planet’s strange topography. Balcher crater (center of above image), is approximately 35 kilometers in diameter. It’s unique because the raised central formation, similar to those found in other craters, has been cut in half by some kind of violent tectonic force.
On November 9, 2005, The European Space Agency launched the Venus Express mission from Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan. The spacecraft was designed to help answer other intriguing questions about the solar system’s second planet:
1. Why are some areas on the surface so reflective to radar?
2. Is there presently volcanic or seismic activity on the planet?
3. How do the complex global dynamics of the planet work?
4. What causes the super-fast atmospheric rotation and the hurricane-force winds?
5. What maintains the double atmospheric vortex at the poles?
Coupled with information collected by the Magellan Mission, the ESA program should provide planetary scientists with enough data to ponder the unusual environment of Venus for years to come. However, because mission scientists are unaware of how the electrical environment of Venus influences the geologic processes and the bizarre terrain that we see, they are not able to provide complete explanations for the complex issues that face them. In past Thunderbolts Pictures of the Day, we have explored some of those issues.
Many of the mountains on Venus have peaks that shine very brightly in radar. Although the reason for the strange brightness is a mystery for NASA, from an electric universe standpoint, the mountain peaks are glowing with a form of “St. Elmo’s Fire.” St. Elmo’s Fire is a plasma phenomenon, similar to static electricity, and charged plasma reflects radar like a mirror. Therefore, the high albedo of the mountains may be the result of that discharge.
Enormous areas of the planet are cut by “nova,” or deep grooves, that extend outward – radially – from an area of parallel fractures. Analysts from NASA and ESA both have identified these formations as the remains of volcanic upwelling. At some time in the past, underground magma partially melted and swelled the surface. After a period of time, the magma subsided, the surface cooled and contracted, leaving behind a network of fractures. As we have noted in the past, however, these features resemble nothing more strongly than lightning scars called, Lichtenberg Figures.
Other complex structures called “coronae” are oval formations that are characterized by rings of ridges and troughs that cut through radial cracks, very much like the striations in the “novae.” Coronae are often found in association with so-called “pancake volcanoes” – wide, flat domes that cover hundreds of square kilometers. Electrical theorists explain such structures, also including “shield volcanoes” and “pedestal craters,” as the result of gigantic plasma discharges. Such electric forces pull material toward the center of the vortex as they carve out craters and channels through the surrounding area. After the electric arc has passed, a raised mound of debris, often with a moat surrounding it, will be left behind. Some of the raised mounds can be very large, such as Olympus Mons on Mars, or the Eistla Regionon Venus.
Theories of how Venus was formed and how its surface was blasted and abraded must include the ways that electricity behaves in various circumstances. In the high density atmosphere of Venus, electric arcs will carve out topography similar to that found elsewhere in the solar system, but it will bear unique attributes. For example, highly energetic discharges will leave deeply entrenched formations, as well as swirling structures called, “arachnoids” that bear a resemblance to “spiders” found on Mars, but are far larger and more pronounced. Realizing that all the planets and moons we have explored are probably marked by catastrophic events from a recent past will guide our research toward a more appropriate understanding of why they exhibit such conventionally odd morphology.
By Stephen Smith
Are scientists now scrabbling to adopt Electric Universe and Plasma Cosmology ideas into their explanations of natural electromagnetic phenomena they are observing everywhere?
Julian West pointed out that not only in a recent report where mainstream science used the words 'Electric Wind' but generally more and more space news articles are using typical EU theory words and phrases.
Venus has an "electric wind" strong enough to strip water's building blocks from the planet's atmosphere and fling them into space, new research suggests.
But the rest of the oxygen appears to have been lifted out of the atmosphere, to be carried away by the stream of charged particles flowing out from the sun, they said.
"It's amazing, shocking," Glyn Collinson, a scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center and lead author on the new work, said in a statement. "We never dreamt an electric wind could be so powerful that it can suck oxygen right out of an atmosphere into space. This is something that has to be on the checklist when we go looking for habitable planets around other stars."
Powerful 'Electric Wind' Sucked Venus' Oxygen into Space | Space
And a quote from the NASA video above.
So just as every planet has a gravity field, we think that every planet has a weak electric field. So we went looking for Venus' electric field and Boy Oh Boy did we find it.
Venus' 'Force Monster' Electric Field Strips Water From Atmosphere | NASA video
Abstract from the research paper on the Venus Electric Wind.
One mechanism thought to be important at all planets is an “ambipolar” electric field that helps ions overcome gravity. We report the discovery and first quantitative extraterrestrial measurements of such a field at the planet Venus. Unexpectedly, despite comparable gravity, we show the field to be five times stronger than in Earth’s similar ionosphere.
Contrary to our understanding, Venus would still lose heavy ions (including oxygen and all water-group species) to space, even if there were no stripping by the solar wind. We therefore find that it is possible for planets to lose heavy ions to space entirely through electric forces in their ionospheres and such an “electric wind” must be considered when studying the evolution and potential habitability of any planet in any star system.
The electric wind of Venus: A global and persistent “polar wind”-like ambipolar electric field sufficient for the direct escape of heavy ionospheric ions
Don't use the EU word!
Previously it seemed that everything in space could and must be explained without using specific words and phrases such as plasma, Birkeland Currents, electricity in space etc.
Then over the last few years we started to read press releases that began to use these similar EU and Plasma Cosmology words.
Although an actual Electric Universe theory explanation was never going to be linked.
Are they now desperately playing catchup and trying to hijack these phrases? Are they trying to steal the Electric Wind out of the Electric Universe sails?
Boy Oh Boy, it observes like an Electric Universe
Or is it just obvious to some of them that natural electromagnetism and electricity in space is a very important factor?
So they might as well use the best descriptive phrases to convey the new startling and previously unpredicted observations in a Gravity Universe. Boy Oh Boy, it looks like an Electric Universe.
But they still have to be careful as they can not commit gravity blasphemy. They also do not want or can not be linked to the pseudo science Electric Universe theory. Those EU'ers would even dare use a term like an 'Electric Wind' in a Gravity Universe.
Are scientists now scrabbling to adopt Electric Universe and Plasma Cosmology ideas into their explanations of natural electromagnetic phenomena they are observing everywhere?
Abstract from the research paper on the Venus Electric Wind.
Previously it seemed that everything in space could and must be explained without using specific words and phrases such as plasma, Birkeland Currents, electricity in space etc.
Or is it just obvious to some of them that natural electromagnetism and electricity in space is a very important factor?