Modeling the Venus atmospheric circulation and climate

This project will extend an existing atmospheric circulation and climate numerical model of the Venus atmosphere to incorporate more accurate radiative transfer, clouds and surface properties to obtain a range of model simulations of the Venus atmospheric circulation. These simulations will be compared in detail with available observations from the ESA Venus Express and JAXA Akatsuki missions to investigate phenomena in both the cloud level and deep atmospheric circulation. These results may also be compared with simulations using simplified models of atmospheric circulation to investigate possible dynamical mechanisms that may underly what is observed. The project proposes to use a new suite of model codes based on the ISCA system being developed in collaboration with the University of Exeter.