Towards constraining Venus structure by means of atmospheric loading displacement response

Surface mass loads produce a wide spectrum of deformation responses in planetary bodies that can be exploited to probe material properties in planetary interiors. In particular, the redistribution of fluid mass associated with Venus’s atmospheric dynamics leads to periodic changes in the Venusian surface displacements and thus gravitational field. These periodic variations could potentially be detected by upcoming Venus missions, e.g., VERITAS (Venus Emissivity, Radio Science, InSAR, Topography, and Spectroscopy) and EnVision, which are expected to greatly  improve our knowledge of Venus’s gravity field. 

By combining a state-of-the-art general circulation model of Venus’s atmosphere with a novel approach to the solution of the quasi-static momentum equations in the coupled gravito-elastic problem, we explore the sensitivity of the atmospheric loading response to mantle structure. In addition, we investigate the effect of 3-D crustal and lithospheric variations on Venus’s gravity field and the tidal and load Love numbers. Preliminary results suggest that an accurate estimation of the time-varying gravity field and surface displacements can provide important constraints on the interior structure of Venus through the measurement of the load Love numbers.