Venus's major cloud feature as an equatorially trapped wave distorted by the wind

Abstract

Abstract The superrotation of the atmospheres of slowly rotating bodies is a long‐standing problem yet unsolved in atmospheric dynamics. On Venus, the most extreme case known of superrotation, this is accompanied and influenced by a recurrent planetary‐scale cloud structure, known as the Y feature. So far, no model has simultaneously reproduced its shape, temporal evolution, related wind field, nor the relation between its dynamics and the unknown UV‐absorbing aerosol that produces its dark morphology. In this paper we present an analytical model for a Kelvin‐like wave that offers an explanation of these peculiarities. Under Venus cyclostrophic conditions, this wave is equatorially and vertically trapped where zonal winds peak and extends 7 km in altitude, and its vertical wind perturbations are shown to produce upwelling of the UV absorber. The Y‐feature morphology and its 30 day evolution are reproduced as distortions of the wave structure by the Venus winds.