Radio occultation experiment of the Venus atmosphere and ionosphere with the Venus orbiter Akatsuki

The Radio Science experiment (RS) in the Akatsuki mission of JAXA aims to determine the vertical structure of the Venus atmosphere, thereby complementing the imaging observations by onboard instruments. The physical quantities to be retrieved are the vertical distributions of the atmospheric temperature, the electron density, the H2SO4 vapor density, and small-scale density fluctuations. The uniqueness of Akatsuki RS as compared to the previous radio occultation experiments at Venus is that low latitudes can be probed many times thanks to the near-equatorial orbit. Systematic sampling in the equatorial region provides an opportunity to observe the propagation of planetary-scale waves that might contribute to the maintenance of the super-rotation via eddy momentum transport. Covering the subsolar region is essential to the understanding of cloud dynamics. Frequent sampling in the subsolar electron density also helps the understanding of ionosphere dynamics. Another unique feature of Akatsuki RS is quasi-simultaneous observations with multi-band cameras dedicated to meteorological study; the locations probed by RS are observed by the cameras a short time before or after the occultations. An ultra-stable oscillator provides a stable reference frequency which is needed to generate the X-band downlink signal used for RS.