Scientists Finally Identify What Drives Venus’s Fast Winds
A new study has identified the primary force behind Venus’s extreme superrotating atmosphere: a once-per-day thermal tide driven by solar heating. Using data from Venus Express and Akatsuki along with circulation models, researchers show that this daily tide transports most of the momentum that accelerates cloud-top winds to speeds over 100 metres per second. The results overturn long-standing theories that twice-daily tides or other mechanisms dominated.
