Venus: Cloud level circulation during 1982 as determined from Pioneer cloud photopolarimeter images. I - Time and zonally averaged circulation

Significant mean cloud level circulation changes since 1974, noted in 1982 Venus cloud motion observations, have been validated by independent measurements of cloud motions in nearly-identical sets of images; agreement is obtained not only for the average zonal and meridional components, but for the eddy circulation's meridional transport of momentum. In contrast to 1979 observations, the time latitudinal profile and the longitudinally-averaged zonal component of the cloud motions for 1982 exhibit jets near 45 deg latitude in both the northern and southern hemispheres.