2014/05/31 by Clifford Chafin, Chafin, Clifford
Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #Astro and Planetary Science #Earth and Planetary Astrophysics (astro-ph.EP) #FOS: Physical sciences #Fluid dynamics and aerodynamics studies #Planetary Science and Exploration #astro-ph.EP
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1406.0116
arxiv created 2014/05/31 · openalex publication_date 2014/05/31 · arxiv updated 2014/06/03 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
The superrotation of the atmosphere of Venus requires a large torque on the up- per atmosphere. Mechanisms for providing a net balancing of this through waves or ionospheric motions to other parts of the atmosphere have been proposed but all have difficulties. Here we demonstrate that the albedo gradient from the day to night side of the cloud layer allows a gradient of light pressure that is sufficient to provide an external torque to drive this flow.