This image is a false color version of a much more colorful
rendering of the NIMS view of hot Venus. This is a near
infrared map of lower level clouds on the night side of Venus, obtainedby the
Near Infrared Mapping Spectrometer aboard the Galileo spacecraft as it
approached the planet February 10, 1990. Taken from an altitude of about
60,000 miles above the planet, at an infrared wavelength of 2.3 microns(about
three times the longest wavelength visible to the human eye) the mapshows the
turbulent, cloudy middle atmosphere some 30-33 miles above the surface,6-10
miles below the visible cloudtops. The image shows the radiant heat fromthe
lower atmosphere (about 400 degrees Fahrenheit) shining through the sulfuric
acid clouds, which appear as much as 10 times darker than the brightgaps
between clouds. The colors indicate relative cloud transparency; whiteand red
show thin cloud regions, while black and
blue represent relatively thick clouds. This cloud layer is at about30
degrees Fahrenheit, at a pressure about 1/2 Earth's atmospheric
pressure. 2/3 of the dark hemisphere is visible, centered on longitude
350 West, with bright slivers of daylit high clouds visible at top and
bottom left. Near the equator, the clouds appear fluffy and blocky;
farther north, they are stretched out into East West filaments by winds
estimated at more than 150 mph, while the poles are capped by thick
clouds at this altitude.