Height of the Venusian Clouds at Equatorial and Polar Latitudes

Abstract

IN 1956 Kuiper and Chamberlain¹ reported the systematic diminution of the equivalent width of weak CO₂ bands near 0.8 µm in the spectrum of Venus as the phase angle of the planet increases, especially near inferior conjunction. I found the same effect for strong CO₂ bands near 1.6 µm at the time of the inferior conjunction of 1966 (ref. 2). All the spectra were obtained in the region of the intensity equator. I repeated the observations near the inferior conjunction of 1969 for the cusps as well. Fig. 1 shows typical spectra—three of Venus and a comparison spectrum of the Moon. All the spectra were obtained at about the same air mass, those for Venus on March 31 and for the Moon on April 2, 1969, using the diffractional infrared spectrometer at the 125 cm reflector of the Crimean Station of the Sternberg Astronomical Institute.