Wind Velocities on Venus: Vector Determination by Radio Interferometry

To determine the wind directions and speeds on Venus, as each Pioneer probe fell to the surface we tracked its motion in three dimensions using a combination of Doppler and long-baseline radio interferometric methods. Preliminary results from this tracking, coupled with results from test observation...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science) Vol. 203; no. 4382; pp. 805 - 806
Main Authors:	Counselman, C. C., Gourevitch, S. A., King, R. W., Pettengill, G. H., Prinn, R. G., Shapiro, I. I., Miller, R. B., Smith, J. R., Ramos, R., Liebrecht, P.
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	English
Published:	United States American Association for the Advancement of Science 23-02-1979
Subjects:	Altitude Kinetics Mathematical vectors Planetary probes Space based observatories Spacecraft Velocity Velocity vector Venus Wind velocity
Online Access:	Get full text
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Summary:	To determine the wind directions and speeds on Venus, as each Pioneer probe fell to the surface we tracked its motion in three dimensions using a combination of Doppler and long-baseline radio interferometric methods. Preliminary results from this tracking, coupled with results from test observations of other spacecraft, enable us to estimate the uncertainties of our eventual determinations of the velocity vectors of the probes with respect to Venus. For altitudes below about 65 kilometers and with time-averaging over 100-second intervals, all three components of the velocity should have errors of the order of 0.3 meter per second or less.
Bibliography:	ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23
ISSN:	0036-8075 1095-9203
DOI:	10.1126/science.203.4382.805