Lightning and Plasma Wave Observations from the Galileo Flyby of Venus

Initiation of a lightning search using the lightning and airglow camera onboard the Venus orbiter Akatsuki

The existence of lightning discharges in the Venus atmosphere has been controversial for more than 30 years, with many positive and negative reports published. The lightning and airglow camera (LAC) onboard the Venus orbiter, Akatsuki, was designed to observe the light curve of possible flashes at a sufficiently high sampling rate to discriminate lightning from other sources and can thereby perform a more definitive search for optical emissions. Akatsuki arrived at Venus during December 2016, 5 years following its launch. The initial operations of LAC through November 2016 have included a progressive increase in the high voltage applied to the avalanche photodiode detector. LAC began lightning survey observations in December 2016. It was confirmed that the operational high voltage was achieved and that the triggering system functions correctly. LAC lightning search observations are planned to continue for several years.

Non-detection at Venus of high-frequency radio signals characteristic of terrestrial lightning

The detection of impulsive low-frequency (10 to 80 kHz) radio signals, and separate very-low-frequency (approximately 100 Hz) radio 'whistler' signals provided the first evidence for lightning in the atmosphere of Venus. Later, a small number of impulsive high-frequency (100 kHz to 5.6 MHz) radio signals, possibly due to lightning, were also detected. The existence of lightning at Venus has, however, remained controversial. Here we report the results of a search for high-frequency (0.125 to 16 MHz) radio signals during two close fly-bys of Venus by the Cassini spacecraft. Such signals are characteristic of terrestrial lightning, and are commonly heard on AM (amplitude-modulated) radios during thunderstorms. Although the instrument easily detected signals from terrestrial lightning during a later fly-by of Earth (at a global flash rate estimated to be 70 s(-1), which is consistent with the rate expected for terrestrial lightning), no similar signals were detected from Venus. If lightning exists in the venusian atmosphere, it is either extremely rare, or very different from terrestrial lightning.

Plasma Observations at Venus with Galileo

Plasma measurements were obtained with the Galileo spacecraft during an approximately 3.5-hour interval in the vicinity of Venus on 10 February 1990. Several crossings of the bow shock in the local dawn sector were recorded before the spacecraft passed into the solar wind upstream from this planet. Although observations of ions of the solar wind and the postshock magnetosheath plasmas were not possible owing to the presence of a sunshade for thermal protection of the instrument, solar wind densities and bulk speeds were determined from the electron velocity distributions. A magnetic field-aligned distribution of hotter electrons or ;;strahl'' was also found in the solar wind. Ions streaming into the solar wind from the bow shock were detected. Electron heating at the bow shock, </=20%, was notably small, with substantial density increases by factors of 2 to 3 at the day side of the shock that decrease for shock crossings further downstream from the planet. A search for pickup ions from the hot hydrogen and oxygen planetary coronas yielded an upper limit for these densities in the range of 10(-3) ion per cubic centimeter, which is consistent with densities expected from current models of neutral gas densities.

Magnetic Field Studies of the Solar Wind Interaction with Venus from the Galileo Flyby

During the 10 February 1990 flyby of Venus, the Galileo spacecraft skimmed the downstream flank of the planetary bow shock. This provided an opportunity to examine both the global and the local structure of the shock in an interval during which conditions in the solar wind plasma were quite steady. The data show that the cross section of the shock in planes transverse to the flow is smaller in directions aligned with the projection of the interplanetary magnetic field than in directions not so aligned. Ultralow-frequency waves were present in the unshocked solar wind, and their amplitude peaked when the spacecraft was downstream of the foreshock. At large distances down the tail, the Mach number of the flow normal to the shock is low, thus providing the opportunity to study repeated crossings of the collisionless shock in an interesting parameter regime. Some of the shock crossings reveal structure that comes close to the theoretically predicted form of intermediate shocks, whose existence in collisionless plasmas has not been confirmed.