JAXAs Venus Climate Orbiter

(PLANET-C) overview

Launch: Jun 2010

Arrival: Dec 2010
Mission life: 2 years

Venus and Earth

They have almost the same size and mass.

Surface environments are completely different.
(Venus environment: CO2 atmosphere, no ocean,
92bar, 740K, H2SO4 cloud ..)
What differentiated these planets? How does the
climate system work under different conditions?

Science goals
Atmospheric dynamics
Mechanism of super-rotation
Meridional circulation
Meso-scale processes
Lightning
Cloud physics
Detection of active volcanism
Inhomogeneity of surface material
Zodiacal light

Hierarchy of Earths meteorology

Macro Meso Micro

1sec

10min

1hr

6hr

2d

20d

1yr

10yr

Planetary
Climate
wave
change
Baroclinic instability
Tropical cyclones
Cloud cruster
Inertio gravity wave
Cumulus convection
Gravity wave
Boundary layer
Wave breaking
Boundary layer
turbulence

Interaction

104 km
103 km
102 km
10 km
1 km
100 m
10 m

Hierarchy of Venus meteorology

Macro Meso Micro

1sec

10min

1hr

6hr

2d

20d

1yr

10yr

Super-rotation 104 km

103 km
102 km
10 km

Upscale cascade
to super-rotation?

1 km
100 m
10 m

Forbes (2002)

Concept of meteorological satellite

Monitoring global structure
o
Wide field of view (12 )
Covering wide-range of time scales
Continuous, systematic sampling
(every 2 hours)
Local time coverage
Equatorial orbit
Meso-scales / Wind vectors
High spatial resolution (~10 km)

Spacecraft
Mass 480 kg
(including fuel)
Science payload 34 kg
Attitude control
o
Pointing accuracy 0.1
Stability 0.01o
Oribit
Periapsis 300km
Apoapsis 13 Rv
Period 30 hours

12o FOV

Science instruments (1)

1-m camera (IR1) by Tokyo U.
= 1.01 m (near-IR window)
Pixels: 1024x1024, Detector: Si-CSD/CCD
Cloud (day/night)
Active volcanism / surface emissivity (night)

2-m camera (IR2) by Kumamoto U.

= 1.73, 2.26, 2.32 m (near-IR window),
2.02 m (CO2 absorption), 1.65 m (zodiacal light)
Pixels: 1024x1024, Detector: PtSi
Cloud / Particle size
Carbon monooxide (night)
Cloud top height (day)
Galileo (2.3m)
Zodiacal light (cruising)

Science instruments (2)

UV imager (UVI) by Hokkaido U.
= 283, 365 nm
Pixels: 1024x1024, Detector: SiCCD
SO2 / Unknown UV absorber (day)

Longwave IR camera (LIR) by Inst. of Polar Res.

= 8-12 m
Pixels: 240x320, Detector: uncooled bolometer
Cloud top temperature (day/night)

Lightning and Airglow camera (LAC) by Tohoku U.

= 777, 551, 553, 558, 630 nm
Pixels: 8x8, Detector: APD (50kHz sampling)
Lightning (night)
O2 /O airglow (night)

Science instruments (3)

Sensor Digital Electronics unit (DE) by JAXA
Controlling observation sequence of cameras
Onboard calibration
JPEG2000 data compression

Ultra-stable oscillator (Radio science) by JAXA

~10-13, provided by Timetech Co.
Temperature profiles
H2SO4 vapor profile
Ionosphere
To the earth

Atmosphere
Usuda deep
space center

Spacecraft
motion
X-band beacon

1-m camera

Lightning and airglow camera

2-m camera

Longwave IR camera

Ultraviolet imager

Altitude coverage
Unknown
momentum
transport
80

Airglow (Visible)

Radio occultation
Lightning

Cloud top temperature (IR)

Surface (Near-IR)

100
velocity (m s-1)

CO (Near-IR)

Lower cloud (Near-IR)

CO2 absorption (Near-IR)

SO2 /Unknown absorber (UV)

Cloud
layer
60

50

Sounding region
(km)
100

40

20

Observation sequence in each revolution

300km x 13 RVenus
Period: 30 hours
Inclination: 172 deg
Temperature/H2SO4
vapor by radio
occultation

Limb images
(~1 hour)
Resolution: 0.2-1 km

Resolution: 10-20 km
Global images of
atmosphere and ground
surface (~24 hours)

Close-up images /
Lightning / Airglow
(~3 hours x 2)
Resolution: 1-10 km

Orbital motion roughly synchronized with the

super-rotational flow near the cloud base
Spacecraft
60 m/s westward flow
near the cloud base

Accurate derivation of eddy motions

embedded in the background super-rotation

Derivation of cloud motion

vectors every 2 hours
100-300 km

Movement
with time

Cloud tracked winds on the Earth

3-D global meteorological data

Dayside

Nightside

Temperature
H2SO4 vapor RS

Airglow
LAC
100 km

SO2 / Unknown
absorber (UVI
Cloud top
height
IR2
Lower clouds
IR1

65 km
50 km
35-50 km

Cloud motion
vectors
0 km

Cloud top
temperature
LIR
Lower clouds
IR1/IR2
Carbon monooxide
IR2

Lightning LAC
Active volcanism / Surface material IR1

Optical sounding of ground surface

Search for hot lava by taking global pictures
at 1.01m several times per orbit
Emissivity distribution of the ground surface
Cloud feature is distinguished from surface
feature by taking motion pictures and using
1.7m and 2.3m images which reflect cloud
feature but not the surface feature.

Schedule
2004
2006
2009
2010

Proto Model (Phase-B) start

Flight Model design/manufacturing start
Final integration test
Launch / Arrival at Venus

IR2 test model

M-V rocket of JAXA