The Venus Global Ionosphere-Thermosphere Model (V-GITM): A Coupled Thermosphere and Ionosphere Formulation

Abstract

This paper introduces the new Venus Global Ionosphere Thermosphere Model (V-GITM) which incorporates the terrestrial GITM framework with Venus-specific parameters, ion-neutral chemistry, and radiative processes in order to simulate some of the observable features regarding the temperatures, composition, and dynamical structure of the Venus atmosphere from 70 km to 170 km. Atmospheric processes are included based upon formulations used in previous Venus GCMs, several augmentations exist, such as improved horizontal and vertical momentum equations and tracking exothermic chemistry. Explicitly solving the momentum equations allows for the exploration of its dynamical effects on the day-night structure. In addition, V-GITM’s use of exothermic chemistry instead of a strong heating efficiency accounts for the heating due to the solar EUV while producing comparable temperatures to empirical models. V-GITM neutral temperatures and neutral-ion densities are compared to upper atmosphere measurements obtained from Pioneer Venus and Venus Express. V-GITM demonstrates asymmetric horizontal wind velocities through the cloud tops to the middle thermosphere and explains the mechanisms for sustaining the wind structure. In addition, V-GITM produces reasonable dayside ion densities and shows that the neutral winds can carry the ions to the nightside via an experiment advecting O$_2^+$.