Edited by: Masato Nakamura, Dmitri Titov, Kevin McGouldrick, Pierre Drossart, Jean-Loup Bertaux, Huixin Liu
This special issue calls for papers of instrumentation and scientific results related to the Akatsuki Venus mission. The core of the issue will be characterization papers for 6 scientific instruments onboard Akatsuki (UVI, IR1, IR2, LIR, LAC, and RS). In addition to these, papers based on data analysis (either Akatsuki or else), modeling, and theoretical studies are welcome. The goal of this issue is to become a reference guidebook for Akatsuki data users with good example research papers.
Akatsuki at Venus: The First Year of Scientific Operation
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Citation: Earth, Planets and Space 2018 70:144
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Initiation of a lightning search using the lightning and airglow camera onboard the Venus orbiter Akatsuki
The existence of lightning discharges in the Venus atmosphere has been controversial for more than 30 years, with many positive and negative reports published. The lightning and airglow camera (LAC) onboard th...
Citation: Earth, Planets and Space 2018 70:88 -
Venus looks different from day to night across wavelengths: morphology from Akatsuki multispectral images
Since insertion into orbit on December 7, 2015, the Akatsuki orbiter has returned global images of Venus from its four imaging cameras at eleven discrete wavelengths from ultraviolet (283 and 365 nm) and near ...
Citation: Earth, Planets and Space 2018 70:24 -
Ultraviolet imager on Venus orbiter Akatsuki and its initial results
The ultraviolet imager (UVI) has been developed for the Akatsuki spacecraft (Venus Climate Orbiter mission). The UVI takes ultraviolet (UV) images of the solar radiation reflected by the Venusian clouds with nar...
Citation: Earth, Planets and Space 2018 70:23 -
Mean winds at the cloud top of Venus obtained from two-wavelength UV imaging by Akatsuki
Venus is covered with thick clouds. Ultraviolet (UV) images at 0.3–0.4 microns show detailed cloud features at the cloud-top level at about 70 km, which are created by an unknown UV-absorbing substance. Images...
Citation: Earth, Planets and Space 2018 70:10 -
Initial products of Akatsuki 1-μm camera
The status and initial products of the 1-μm camera onboard the Akatsuki mission to Venus are presented. After the successful retrial of Venus’ orbit insertion on Dec. 2015 (5 years after the failure in Dec. 20...
Citation: Earth, Planets and Space 2018 70:6 -
Overview of Akatsuki data products: definition of data levels, method and accuracy of geometric correction
We provide an overview of data products from observations by the Japanese Venus Climate Orbiter, Akatsuki, and describe the definition and content of each data-processing level. Levels 1 and 2 consist of non-c...
Citation: Earth, Planets and Space 2017 69:167 -
Effects of variation in coagulation and photochemistry parameters on the particle size distributions in the Venus clouds
This paper explores the effects that variation in the coalescence efficiency of the Venus cloud particles can have on the structure of the Venus cloud. It is motivated by the acknowledgment of uncertainties in...
Citation: Earth, Planets and Space 2017 69:161 -
Performance of Akatsuki/IR2 in Venus orbit: the first year
The first year (December 2015 to November 2016) of IR2 after Akatsuki’s successful insertion to an elongated elliptical orbit around Venus is reported with performance evaluation and results of data acquisitio...
Citation: Earth, Planets and Space 2017 69:154 -
Absolute calibration of brightness temperature of the Venus disk observed by the Longwave Infrared Camera onboard Akatsuki
The Venus Climate Orbiter Akatsuki arrived at Venus in December 2015, and the Longwave Infrared Camera (LIR) onboard the spacecraft started making observations. LIR has acquired more than 8000 images during th...
Citation: Earth, Planets and Space 2017 69:141 -
Initial performance of the radio occultation experiment in the Venus orbiter mission Akatsuki
After the arrival of Akatsuki spacecraft of Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency at Venus in December 2015, the radio occultation experiment, termed RS (Radio Science), obtained 19 vertical profiles of the Venus...
Citation: Earth, Planets and Space 2017 69:137 -
AKATSUKI returns to Venus
AKATSUKI is the Japanese Venus Climate Orbiter that was designed to investigate the climate system of Venus. The orbiter was launched on May 21, 2010, and it reached Venus on December 7, 2010. Thrust was appl...
Citation: Earth, Planets and Space 2016 68:75