Venusian Turbulence: Image Mosaic of the (visible) Venusian Cloud System

This image is a composite of four different views of the Venusian Cloud System.

The images were acquired on 24 September 2006 by the Ultraviolet, Visible and Near-Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (VIRTIS) on board ESA’s Venus Express, from distances of about 65.000 Km (top left), 60.000 Km (top right), 53.000 Km (bottom left), 37.000 Km (bottom right) from the Planet’s surface.
The images, showing a complex cloud system, were taken on the night-side of Venus (04:00 V.L.T.), at a wavelength of 1,7 micron that allows viewing the deep atmospheric layers.

The grey-scale of the images is such that black means more transparency, therefore less clouds, while white means more opacity, therefore more cloud concentration.