Lightning detection on Venus: a critical review

Lorenz, Ralph D.

doi:10.1186/s40645-018-0181-x

Progress in Earth and Planetary Science

Table 2 Key characteristics of Venus lightning observations

From: Lightning detection on Venus: a critical review

Study^a	Platform	Instrument	Signature	Instrument designed for lightning?	Detections	Amplitude or Sensitivity	Controls	Other explanations for data	Area observed	Duration
Krasnopolsky 1979, 1983a,b	Veneras 9 and 10 orbiter	Visible spectrometer	Spikes in optical intensity	No (spectral scanner)	1 burst of ~ 2 flashes/s over 70 s	1E8 W 3E7 J/flash	Dark sky	Debris from spacecraft?	1500 km²	2 spacecraft × 25,000 s (night)
Ksanfomality et al. 1979, Ksanfomality et al. 1982, Ksanfomality et al. 1983	Veneras 11 and 12 lander. Veneras 13 and 14 lander	Groza (V11, 12) Groza-2 (V13, 14) magnetic and acoustic sensors	10 and 36 kHz impulses	Yes	Near-continuous noise (few to ~ 40 pulses per second)	Tens of μV/μ/Hz^0.5	–	Spacecraft noise: but time (altitude) dependence argues against	Few million km² (?) Depends on propagation	4 spacecraft, ~ 1 h each descent
	Veneras 11 and 12 lander. Veneras 13 and 14 lander		10 and 36 kHz impulses	Yes	One burst (V12) 150 pulses in 8 s	20–40 μV/μ/Hz^0.5	–	As above	1 million km² (?)	4 s/c × 8 s every 3–6 min for ~ 1 h
Scarf et al. 1980, 1987	Pioneer Venus Orbiter	Electric field detector	E-field bursts at 100 Hz	(Yes)	4240 bursts	> 20 μV/μ/Hz^0.5	–	Plasma noise. Spacecraft noise	Unknown	257 h
Borucki et al. 1991	Pioneer Venus Orbiter	Star scanner	Optical pulses	No		2E8 J	Statistics of off-disk pulses	Cosmic rays	~1 million km²	~ 80 s
Huestis and Slanger 1993	Pioneer Venus Orbiter	UV spectrometer	Spikes in optical intensity	No (spectral scanner)	1 event	> 70 kR	–	Meteor trail was preferred explanation	< 1000 km²	~ 600 orbits, 10 min each
Gurnett et al. 1991	Galileo flyby	Radio	Electric field	Yes	9 impulses	10–16 V² m^-2 Hz^-1	Observations before/after encounter	Plasma noise, spacecraft noise	Disk	53 min
Belton et al. 1991	Galileo flyby	CCD Camera	Bright spots on image	Yes	Nondetection	4 × 1E9 J	–	N/A	Part of disk
Hansell et al. 1995	1.54 m ground-based telescope	CCD camera	Bright spots on image	Yes	7 flashes	7E7–1E9 J	Dark frames	Cosmic rays	~ 70% of disk	3.75 h
Gurnett et al. 2001	Cassini flybys	Radio and plasma wave	Electric field	Yes	Firm nondetection		Earth lightning	N/A	~ Disk
Russell et al. 2007a, 2007b. Hart et al. 2013	Venus Express	Magnetometer	Bursts at 64 Hz	Indirectly	~ 700 s of activity per 225 days (10 min/day)	~ 0.1–1 nT	Variation with altitude	Plasma, spacecraft noise	~ 200 km
Moinelo et al. 2016	Venus Express	VIRTIS near-IR spectrometer	Bright spectra	No	Nondetection	Not stated	–	N/A	(varies)	~ 50,000 s total

^aIn many cases, many papers examine the same data (especially Pioneer Venus and Venus Express, see main text)—here lists only the papers from which the table entries have been derived

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