Study of the Waves at the Clouds of Venus with the space mission Akatsuki

The Akatsuki mission is a climate orbiter sent to Venus by the Japanese space agency in 2010 to study the planet's atmosphere and climate. One of the most significant phenomena in understanding atmospheric circulation and dynamics is atmospheric waves, which may play a crucial role in another even more important phenomenon observed on Venus: superrotation. This process causes the planet's atmosphere to rotate at a much higher velocity than its surface. Therefore, in this study, ultraviolet images from one of the cameras onboard Akatsuki were used to search for atmospheric waves in the cloud-top region of Venus' dayside. Subsequently, the detected waves were characterized in terms of their properties.