Glory on Venus and selection among the unknown UV absorbers

Abstract

The comparison of the phase profiles of glories observed on the cloud top of Venus by the Venus Monitoring Camera (Venus Express) and the light-scattering characteristics of sulfuric acid droplets, containing admixtures with a high refractive index, makes it easier to choose between some candidates for the so-called unknown UV absorber in the Venus clouds. Since among the candidates there are materials wetted and not wetted by sulfuric acid, we analyze whether small submicron particles adhered to or embedded into the 1-µm H2SO4 droplets may actually change the glory pattern normally produced by homogeneous spherical particles and what the conditions are, under which the composite particles formed in heterogeneous nucleation may still produce a glory feature. We have found that one of the most frequently considered candidates, sulfur, can hardly be responsible for the contrasts observed at 0.365 µm on the upper clouds, since it is not wetted by sulfuric acid and submicron sulfur particles, serving as condensation nuclei for sulfuric acid, can only adhere to the H2SO4 droplets rather than be enveloped by them. Such droplets decorated by sulfur blobs substantially distort the glory feature characteristic of the scattering by spherical particles or even smooth it at all, while a glory pattern is practically always seen in the images of Venus taken at small phase angles. At the same time, the grains of the other UV absorbers that can be embedded in H2SO4 droplets, e.g., the widely discussed ferric chloride, pose no problem in terms of interpretation of the observations of glory.