Venus's 3,700-Mile Cloud Wall Reveals Planetary-Scale Hydraulic Jump
Scientists have identified a planetary-scale hydraulic jump—driven by a Kelvin wave—in Venus’s thick CO2-sulfuric acid atmosphere that forms a 3,700-mile-wide cloud wall racing around the planet every few days, faster than Venus’s rotation. This cross-scale coupling links large-scale winds to localized vertical motion, a mechanism missing from current global circulation models and potentially key to understanding Venus’s extreme super-rotation. The finding reshapes how researchers model Venus’s climate and points to updates ahead of upcoming missions such as DAVINCI, VERITAS, and EnVision.