All articles tagged with #superrotation
A study of Venus, using Akatsuki data, shows that gigantic hydraulic jumps push sulfuric acid vapor upward into the lower-to-middle cloud layers, creating planet-spanning cloud fronts that can reach about 6,000 km and likely help sustain Venus’s extreme superrotation, resolving decades of mystery and offering clues for future missions and potentially similar processes on Mars.
Researchers show Venus’s colossal 6,000-km atmospheric wave results from the solar system’s largest hydraulic jump: when eastward lower-cloud flows slow abruptly, a strong vertical updraft lifts sulfuric acid vapor and creates a massive cloud disturbance that may help sustain Venus’s superrotation. The finding, based on advanced fluid-dynamics simulations and microphysical modeling, explains why previous Earth-centric models missed the phenomenon and outlines steps to incorporate this mechanism into broader Venus climate models, with potential implications for future Mars research.