Venusian Turbulence: the Alpha Regio Area

This image of the Venusian South Polar Region was acquired on 24 September 2006 by the Ultraviolet, Visible and Near-Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (VIRTIS) on board ESA’s Venus Express, from a distance of about 53.000 Km from the Planet’s surface.
The image, taken on the night-side of Venus at a wavelength of 1,7 micron, shows waves structure (faint light vertical streaks at the lower left part of the dark band in the centre-left side of the image) and a highly turbulent region (bottom left).

The Alpha Regio area is at the bottom left of the image. This area is characterised by a series of troughs, ridges, and faults that are oriented in many directions, with surface features that can be up to 4 Km high. It is not yet clear if atmospheric turbulences may be induced by the rough topography below the clouds.

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