# New cloud morphologies discovered on the Venus's night during Akatsuki

## TL;DR

This study analyzes Venus's night cloud images from 2016-2018, revealing diverse morphologies including wave patterns, vortices, and previously unseen dark features, enhancing understanding of Venus's atmospheric dynamics.

## Contribution

It reports the discovery of new cloud features on Venus's night side, expanding knowledge of its atmospheric phenomena using recent high-resolution imaging.

## Key findings

- Identification of dark spots and streaks at mid-latitudes.
- Observation of fully-developed vortices.
- Detection of previously unseen dark features.

## Abstract

During the years 2016 to 2018, the instruments Akatsuki/IR2 (JAXA) and IRTF/SpeX (NASA) acquired a large set of images at 1.74, 2.26 and 2.32 {\mu}m to study the nightside mid-to-lower clouds (48-60 km) of Venus. Here we summarize the rich variety of cloud morphologies apparent in these images: from frequent wave packets and billows caused by shear instabilities, to features reported decades ago like the circum-equatorial belts, bright blotches and equatorial troughs, and previously unseen features like dark spots, sharp dark streaks at mid latitudes and fully-developed vortices.

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Source: https://tomesphere.com/paper/1905.08913