Studies of the Chemistry of the Nightside Ionosphere of Venus

During the tenure of this grant, we have been looking into the chemistry of the nightside ionosphere of Venus with a view toward elucidating the relative roles of electron precipitation and plasma transport as sources of the nightside ionosphere. Secondary goals have included determining the densities of minor species on the nightside, and verifying the relative normalization of the Pioneer Venus orbiter ion mass spectrometer (OIMS) and orbiter neutral mass spectrometer (ONMS) in the photochemical equilibrium region. Our studies have involved a combination of numerical modeling and analysis of the Pioneer Venus UADS data base, specifically data from the OIMS, ONMS and electron temperature probe (OETP). We have set up a one-dimensional model of the Venus nightside ionosphere, in which downward fluxes of atomic ions are introduced at the upper boundary to simulate transport of ions from the dayside. Our model shows that the densities of mass-28 ions (CO+ + N+) resulting from an influx of atomic ions from the dayside are quite small, due to the high ionization potentials of CO and N2 that make chemical production difficult.