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S.S. Limaye (U. Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin), T. Prabhu (Ind. Inst. of Astrophysics, Bangalore, INDIA), B.C. Bhatt (Ind. Inst. of Astrophysics/CREST, Hoskote, INDIA), B.G. Anandrao (Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad, INDIA), G. Emerson (Ball Aerospace Co., Boulder, Colorado), E.F. Young (Southwest Research Inc., Boulder, Colorado)
In order to obtain a better dataset for tracking features in near infrared images of Venus, coordinated observations were made from two telescopes in India - the 1m Mt. Abu telescope at Gurushikhar (Location: 24o 39' 8.8" North Latitude, 72o 46' 47.47", 1680 m above MSL, NICMOS III camera, 0.5 arcsec/pixel) and the 2m Optical-Infrared Himalayan Chandra Telescope at Hanle, Ladakh (32o 35' 46" North Latitude and 78o 57' 51" East Longitude, 4500 m above MSL, NIR Camera, 0.21 arcsec/pixel) during 4-10 May 2004 and 6 -10 July 2004 when similar observations were also made from IRTF (Young et al., 2004) and Nordic Optical Telescope (Warell et al., 2004) as well as APO and AAT. Images were obtained at ~ 2.29 micron wavelength using the filters available at the telescopes and show considerable variability from day to day in the atmospheric features. Yet there is enough retention of structural features that suggest a lifetime of ~ 7 days indicating one complete rotation as observed from HCT data taken in May 2004. These features are believed to originate at ~ 52 km level above the Venus surface and the motions are consistent with a rotation rate of ~ 63 m/s at the equator. When combined with those from NOT, IRTF, APO and AAT these observations will yield better information about the circulation at ~ 52 km altitude than has been possible from previous observations.
We acknowledge the support and hospitality extended to us to obtain these observations by the staff of Mt. Abu and the Chandra telescopes, in particular Rajesh Shat and Jinesh Jain. Mt. Abu Telescope is operated by Physical Research Laboratory (Ahmedabad, India) and the Chandra Telescope is operated by Center for Research and Education in Science and Technology, Indian Institute of Astrophysics (Bangalore, India). Both are supported by the Indian Space Research Organization
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The author(s) of this abstract have provided an email address for comments about the abstract: SanjayL@ssec.wisc.edu
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Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 36 #4
© 2004. The American Astronomical Soceity.