Preliminary calibration results of VEGA 1 and 2 SIGMA-3 gas chromatograph

SIGMA - 3 gas chromatograph on board VEGA 1 and 2 landing probes has been operated successfully in the 60 - 50 km altitude range, providing several in - situ chemical analysis of the gas and the aerosols of Venus cloud layers. Post flight calibration required to derive atmospheric abundancies from gas chromatograms were carried out using the SIGMA - 3 spare model. A Venus atmospheric aerosol simulation chamber was used in which sulfuric acid droplets were generated. Preliminary results of these calibration experiments indicate that the concentration of sulfuric acid in the upper part of the clouds ( 60 to 55 km) is about 1 mg/m³ and suggest that an additional constituant must be present in noticeable amount in the aerosols. From these experiments the mixing ratio upper limits of SO₂ is 100 ppmV and of H₂S and COS is few 10 ppmV.     

THE CLUSTER ION SPECTROMETRY (CIS) EXPERIMENT

The Cluster Ion Spectrometry (CIS) experiment is a comprehensive ionic plasma spectrometry package on-board the four Cluster spacecraft capable of obtaining full three-dimensional ion distributions with good time resolution (one spacecraft spin) with mass per charge composition determination. The requirements to cover the scientific objectives cannot be met with a single instrument. The CIS package therefore consists of two different instruments, a Hot Ion Analyser (HIA) and a time-of-flight ion COmposition and DIstribution Function analyser (CODIF), plus a sophisticated dual-processor-based instrument-control and Data-Processing System (DPS), which permits extensive on-board data-processing. Both analysers use symmetric optics resulting in continuous, uniform, and well-characterised phase space coverage. CODIF measures the distributions of the major ions (H⁺, He⁺, He⁺⁺, and O⁺) with energies from ~0 to 40 keV/e with medium (22.5°) angular resolution and two different sensitivities. HIA does not offer mass resolution but, also having two different sensitivities, increases the dynamic range, and has an angular resolution capability (5.6° × 5.6°) adequate for ion-beam and solar-wind measurements.     

Mean zonal wind and temperature structure during the PMP-1 winter periods

Since Autumn of 1978, the National Meteorological Center of the United States National Weather Service has been archiving in a single, unique data set, global, daily synoptic analyses and computer gridded fields of geopotential height and temperature at 18 pressure levels from 1000 to 0.4 mb. The paper discusses the fields, with special emphasis on data and analysis procedures used for the stratospheric fields, along with estimates of uncertainties. Results are presented for the mean zonal wind and temperature patterns for each January of the four PMP-1 winters 1978/79 to 1981/82. The Preparatory MAP (Middle Atmosphere Program) Project for coordinated study of the behavior of the middle atmosphere is called PMP-1.     

Developing a stratospheric climatology from NMC analyses

The National Meteorological Center of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has archived global, daily synoptic analyses and computer gridded fields of geopotential height and temperature for 8 stratospheric pressure levels (70, 50, 30, 10, 5, 2, 1 and 0.4 mb) since the Autumn of 1978. More restricted analyses are available since 1964. The fields are discussed, with special emphasis on improvement of the data bases and analysis procedures. Included in the discussions are screening procedures for the climatological data base. Examples are given with regard to monthly mean energy, wind and hemispheric temperature patterns calculated as the initial development of a stratospheric dynamic climatology.