Chapter 21, Problem 1LTL

Look at Figure 21-1. Compare temperature profiles of Venus’s and Earth’s atmospheres. Describe the differences between the two profiles.

Figure 21-1 (a) Image of Venus made from an approaching spacecraft using a UV filter designed to bring out small contrast differences in the clouds that completely hide the planet’s surface. None of these details would be visible to an unaided human eye. (b) The four main cloud layers in the atmosphere of Venus are more than ten times higher above the surface than ordinary Earth clouds. If you could insert thermometers into Venus’s atmosphere at different levels, you would find that the lower atmosphere is much hotter than that of Earth, as indicated by the red line in the graph, but temperatures in the two planets’ upper atmospheres are quite similar.