Venus’ South Polar Vortex

Orbiting around Venus since April 11 2006, the ESA mission Venus Express, in particular the VIRTIS (Visible and InfraRed Thermal Imaging Spectrometer) instrument on board, is providing an extensive and unique dataset of great scientific importance, spanning from the surface to the atmosphere and its interaction with the solar wind. VIRTIS is perfectly suited to study Venus from orbit through so called infrared atmospheric windows (very narrow holes at selected wavelengths almost transparent and thus able to