A GEOENGINEERING SOLUTION TO GLOBAL WARMING

Seldom are the remedies for Global Warming and Climate Change clobbered unequivocally and brought into light. Much have been spoken on alleviating pollution. The continuum looks endless!

Ruminating on the interior of cloud physics and atmospheric circulation, a Geo-Engineering solution has been recently discovered to increase the cooling effect and thereby increase rainfall.



(This was published in HINDU Final page dated 22-7-1990)

UNDERSTANDING VENUS

Beginning with the space exploration in 1960, the probes have revealed many remarkable and uncanny facts about the planetary diversity and their satellites. It was a astounding truth that despite the formation of all planets from the solar nebula, each planet exhibits its own geological, atmospheric and seasonal changes. The scientists discovered and reasoned numerous exacting processes on Earth through comparative studies with other extra terrestrial planets. This broke much new ground and made us realize that it takes more than instrument to make an orchestra.

For a scientist enduring to perpend over the truth, the mystery of retreating glaciers and green house effect would be more intriguing than the most thrilling pages of a novel. But, when the victim turned out to be our own planet, the scientific community was alarmed! Bewildering concepts of global warming and threatening statistics of sea level rise brought into limelight, the intrepid discussions on our ‘Next Hospitable Planet’.

Terraforming on Extra terrestrial planets gained momentum. We understood that we are just an example of a ‘much vaster and more varied tapestry’. The whole Universe opened before us t find our next destination. It was a joy to behold those scores of creative ideas gave mankind, the unseen yet existing zones of our Solar System.

Even years of work can go for naught if the concepts and results do not reach the common man! Hence I would like to share some seminal facts on Venus from one of the discussions I recently attended.

Venus, much known as the sister planet of Earth is often visualized as a morning star or an Evening star in the sky. Walking down the history of our nearest neighbor, We can see how this planet was traced and viewed in the past. Galileo saw the phases of Venus through his amateur telescope. Captain Hookes and his team finalized the drawings of the phases of Venus. But the time or the split second when the limb of Venus actually passed in front of the Sun was still unanswered. The planet was found to have had a moderate temperature in the past with liquid water on its surface and active ‘Intra plate tectonics’. The planet became a scientific labyrinth due to its abnormal East to west spin unike the West to East spin of Planets housing solid rocks(Only three planets in the solar system have been found to have this negative spin ; Venus, Uranus and Pluto(gaseous comp). The length of a sidereal day was -243.0187. One solar day on Venus is equal to 116 solar days on Earth! Due to its spin axis of 177.8 degree, the seasons on Northern and Southern Hemisphere of Venus was almost symmetrical. The near surface temperature was same everywhere on the planet.

Mariner 2 was the first mission which flew by venus in 1962. Magelan gave high resolution images of Venus in 1986. Venera 6 was a hard lander to study the winds in the deep space. Venera 8 was a soft lander . Such missions gave us mind boggling results about the surface pressure (92 bars), Air temperature(737K) , density (65Kg/m3 ) and wind speed (0.3-1m/s – Though Similar to Earth,the pressure makes the huge difference). Ratio of dueterium to hydrogen was found to be higher than Earth which made the remote sensing Hydrologists to ponder over the existence of water. The atmospheric composition was almost similar to Mars (96.5co2 and 3.5 N2).
The UV spectra showed absorptions bands at specific wavelengths. But tracing the compounds which absorbed UV rays remained a tangential question. Venus had convective clouds similar to Earth but the composition was of H2SO4. Hypotheses predict the existence of condensed Co2 clouds on Venus.


Due to very high scattering and presence of thick H2SO4 clouds, the visible and infrared imaging may be futile. The Microwave window is predominantly used to study the wind patterns and their speeds. The lack of magnetic field stands to hamstring the method of retrieval of directions in this less understood planet. Venus Express launched in 2005 gave an idea on the active volcanoes on Venus(A paper published in science states the eruption of volcano a year back ). Venus Express had devices same as the Mars Express except the OMEGA( Here it was SPICA’P’ instead of SPICA’M’ on MARS EXPRESS).


It also concluded the vortex circulations on Venus similar to Earth. The hurricane formation was also not different from the Earth. Magellan imaged the panoramic view of the planet replete with basaltic rocks ( This conjecture is taken from the existing volcano).
Still, the doubts linger; questions remain.

* How does this planet lose its heat?
* What is the triggering factor for Green house effect?
* Were there fluidized flows of sulphuric acid on this inhospitable planet?
* Is it currently geologically active?
* Does it really hold a intra plate tectonics?



FUTURE MISSIONS TO VENUS:

1. Venus Climate Orbiter – 21 May 2010(AKATSUKI).
2. EVE- An European balloon FALL 2010
3. Venera D 2016
4. Design Reference mission


AKATSUKI:

* Wavelength bands in UV-IR
* 30 Hr Equatorial orbit
* Radio occultation for atm profiles
* 5 cameras
* It will move with clouds and will be highly geosynchronous.


Another 5.5 prototype superpressure balloon is being designed by JPL/NASA. It is made of canvas coated with film. It will image from 55km from surface of Venus for about 1 MONTH.


With such scintillating breakthrough in space applications, I’m sure that the day is not too far when we will hear the voices of Extra terrestrials through Interstellar and Interplanetary communication. Let’s tune our minds to welcome them.