New atmospheric temperature results from the Pioneer Venus entry probes

A new independent determination of Venus atmospheric temperatures, derived from auxiliary engineering measurements of the Small Probe Net Flux Radiometer (SNFR) instruments on board the three small Pioneer Venus entry probes, is presented. The temperature-measurement system and the thermal model needed to convert the raw measurements to atmospheric temperatures are described. The vertical temperature structure and horizontal temperature contrast results are compared graphically measured by the SAS instrument (Seiff et al., 1980), showing a high degree of agreement.