Tuesday, May 24, 2016

Akatsuki Makes a Movie of Venus...

An animated GIF showing Venus' atmosphere as taken in the infrared by the Akatsuki spacecraft...on March 29, 2016 (Japan Standard Time).
JAXA

A Movie of the Venus' Night-Side Produced by IR2 (Press Release - May 23)

This movie is produced from the IR2 2.26-μm images, acquired on 29 March 2016 at a distance of 0.36 million km. Original 4 images were acquired with 4-hour intervals from 16:03 JST (07:03 UT).

In 4 hours, the super-rotating clouds move by ~10 degrees. Such images are numerically derotated to produce intermediate images so that the resultant motion becomes smoother. Deformation, appearance and disappearance of clouds are obvious in this movie. As the mission enters the "nominal" observing phase, we plan to shorten the intervals to 2 hours or even shorter so the high-definition movies will definitely help understanding of the Venus atmosphere.

Source: Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency

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