VIRTIS imaging spectrometer for the ESA/Venus Express mission

Abstract

The selection of the Venus Express mission by ESA in 2002 was the occasion to propose the VIRTIS imaging spectrometer for the payload of this mission to Venus. After the discovery of the infrared windows in the near infrared from ground based observations in the 80ies, it was realized that the surface of Venus is accessible to infrared observation on the night side of Venus. Imaging spectroscopy in the visible and near infrared is therefore a powerful tool to study the Venus atmosphere down to its deepest levels. VIRTIS, the imaging spectrometer of the Rosetta mission (Coradini et al, 1998), as the second generation instrument of this kind after the Phobos/ISM (Bibring et al, 1989), Galileo/NIMS (Carlson et al, 1990) Mars Express/OMEGA (Bibring et al, 2004) and Cassini/VIMS (Brown et al, 2000), is perfectly fitted for extensive observations of the infrared and visible spectral images of Venus, with its unique combination of mapping capabilities at low spectral resolution (VIRTIS-M channel) and high spectral resolution slit spectroscopy (VIRTIS-H channel).