Ionospheric inversion of the Venus Express radio occultation data observed by Shanghai 25 m and New Norcia 35 m antennas

TL;DR

This study reconstructs Venus' ionospheric electron density profiles from Venus Express radio occultation data using Shanghai and New Norcia antennas, revealing profile shapes, ionopause heights, and solar wind interactions.

Contribution

It presents a novel analysis of Venus' ionosphere using one-way radio occultation data from multiple antennas, comparing different frequency data and examining solar wind effects.

Findings

S-band data closely resemble dual-frequency profile shapes

X-band data tend to overestimate peak densities

Ionopause height varies with solar wind pressure

Abstract

Electron density profiles of the Venus' ionosphere are inverted from the Venus Express (VEX) one-way open-loop radio occultation experiments carried out by Shanghai 25 m antenna from November 2011 to January 2012 at solar maximum conditions and by New Norcia 35 m antenna from August 2006 to June 2008 at solar intermediate conditions. The electron density profile (from 110 km to 400 km) retrieved from the X-band egress observation at Shanghai station, shows a single peak near 147 km with a peak density of about $2 \times 10^4 \rm{cm}^{-3}$ at a solar zenith angle of 94$^{\circ}$. As a comparison, the VEX radio science (VeRa) observations at New Norcia station were also examined, including S-, X-band and dual-frequency data in the ingress mode. The results show that the electron density profiles retrieved from the S-band data are more analogous to the dual-frequency data in the profile shape, compared with the X-band data. Generally, the S-band results slightly underestimate the magnitude of the peak density, while the X-band results overestimate that. The discrepancy in the X-band profile is probably due to the relatively larger unmodeled orbital errors. It is also expected that the ionopause height is sensitive to the solar wind dynamical pressure in high and intermediate solar activities, usually in the range of 200 km - 1000 km on the dayside and much higher on the nightside. Structural variations ("bulges" and fluctuations) can be found in the electron density profiles in intermediate solar activity, which may be caused by the interaction of the solar wind with the ionosphere. Considerable ionizations can be observed in the Venus' nightside ionosphere, which are unexpected for the Martian nightside ionosphere in most cases.