Mountain Waves in the Upper Atmosphere of Venus

Abstract

AbstractPlanetary‐scale mountain waves have been observed at the cloud top of Venus and throughout the cloud deck. As they propagate from the surface to the cloud layers, multiple observations and numerical simulations have shown that they grow in size and do not break. However, the fate of mountain waves in the transition region and thermosphere, above the super‐rotating atmosphere, has only been addressed with two‐dimensional models. We conduct for the first time a simulation of mountain waves with a state‐of‐the‐art Venus climate model that includes the thermosphere. We find that mountain waves can propagate up to at least 150 km altitude, well above the transition region. They affect the circulation of the transition region, by reducing winds speeds, and the subsolar‐to‐antisolar circulation.