Posted on Tuesday, June 13, 2017
Venus is an interesting planet in it's similarities and differences from our own planet. Similar in size and location, but very different in it's atmosphere's composition, pressure, climate and many other physical features.
This book looks at how models that have been used for modelling Earth's climate can be used in the case of Venus.
The book starts out with an overview of the history of Venus observations, and what we knew from ground-based telescopic observations and what information was added later by satellites and radar-systems etc. It is interesting to note how early ideas about Venus saw it as a somewhat warmer habitable planet with rain forests, and how those ideas were in a way crushed by the Venusian atmosphere as scientists found out more about it.
After getting to know Venus as a planet we then dive into it's atmosphere and it's characteristics and the modelling efforts looking at it in great detail in the case of the radiation field of Venus, air circulation and how the atmosphere interacts with the surface.
This book also provides some information on the current ideas about what kind of space missions to Venus we might see in the near future.
Labels: book review, venus