[Press Release] Equatorial jet in the lower to middle cloud layer of Venus revealed by Akatsuki

Assoc. Prof. Takeshi Horinouchi and his international research group estimated wind speeds in the Venusian atmosphere by using the 2-μm infrared camera images from the Akatsuki orbiter. They detected winds at low latitude exceeding 80 m/s during July and August 2016. The angular speed around the planetary rotation axis peaks near the equator, and thus they named this wind “equatorial jet”.

This research outcome is published in Nature Geoscience.

Please visit links below to view the press release (Japanese ver. only).
Research Press Release (PDF)