Venus’ Winds Are Mysteriously Speeding Up

[n2doc]

High-altitude winds on neighboring Venus have long been known to be quite speedy, whipping sulfuric-acid-laden clouds around the superheated planet at speeds well over 300 km/h (180 mph). And after over six years collecting data from orbit, ESA’s Venus Express has found that the winds there are steadily getting faster… and scientists really don’t know why.

By tracking the movements of distinct features in Venus’ cloud tops at an altitude of 70 km (43 miles) over a period of six years — which is 10 of Venus’ years — scientists have been able to monitor patterns in long-term global wind speeds.
What two separate studies have found is a rising trend in high-altitude wind speeds in a broad swath south of Venus’ equator, from around 300 km/h when Venus Express first entered orbit in 2006 to 400 km/h (250 mph) in 2012. That’s nearly double the wind speeds found in a category 4 hurricane here on Earth!

“This is an enormous increase in the already high wind speeds known in the atmosphere. Such a large variation has never before been observed on Venus, and we do not yet understand why this occurred,” said Igor Khatuntsev from the Space Research Institute in Moscow and lead author of a paper to be published in the journal Icarus.


Read more: http://www.universetoday.com/103001/venus-winds-are-mysteriously-speeding-up/#ixzz2Wc00mGOs

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. Global warming!

[mindwalker_i]

2. Beat me to it

It may not be breaking news, but it's definitely breaking wind.

[ProdigalJunkMail]

3. can they establish a temperature climb as well?

if so, i would think the problem of why the winds are increasing would be solved...

sP