Observational and Theoretical Constraints on Current Venus Volcanism from Akatsuki UV and IR Imaging

Tantalizing but inconclusive evidence for ongoing volcanism on Venus was previously provided by the Pioneer Venus, Magellan, and Venus Express missions.  The Akatsuki mission has been performing systematic monitoring of the Venus atmosphere and surface, with the potential to quantify the rate of current volcanism on Earth’s sister planet.  We are working with the Akatsuki science team to detect and quantify the current rate of volcanism on Venus, or place a strong upper limit on this rate.  The investigations are using the imaging data from the UV1 instrument to monitor cloud top changes in brightness, the IR1 camera to look at surface emissivity that may indicate recent changes in the surface, and the IR2 camera to correlate atmospheric variability in likely volcanic gases such as SO2 and HCl with surface features and cloud top albedo.  Our program depends upon using the detailed radiative transfer models of the atmosphere and clouds that we have developed over the past 15 years in order to extract information on volcanic processes that may be affecting the surface and atmosphere.Co-I David Grinspoon will help with processing and interpretation of data, and develop and test computer algorithms.