Venus's polar vortex

This image, of the ‘eye of the hurricane’ on Venus was taken by the Visible and Infrared Thermal Imaging Spectrometer (VIRTIS) on board Venus Express.

This picture shows a region in the venusian atmosphere about 60 km from the surface, at a wavelength of about 5 micrometres. In this figure, the dipole assumes an eye-like shape and from here until the last image, it is possible to see how its shape evolves rapidly in a span of only 24 hours.

The yellow dot in the image indicates the location of the south pole.