Venus, southern hemisphere

This global view of the southern hemisphere of Venus is a mosaic of images obtained by the Visible and Infrared Thermal Imaging Spectrometer (VIRTIS) on board ESA’s Venus Express on 16 May 2006.

The night-side hemisphere (in red at the top) is made of infrared images taken at 1.74 micrometres, showing the lower layers of the cloud deck surrounding the planet at about 45-km altitude.

The day-side hemisphere (in blue at the bottom) is made of ultraviolet images taken at 480 nanometres. It shows the cloud top layer at about 65-km altitude.

The red part of the central panel was taken at 3.8 micrometres, and shows the double vortex at the south pole, at an altitude of about 60 km, surrounded by a collar of ‘cold’ air.