Seismic wave detectability on Venus using ground deformation sensors, infrasound sensors on balloons and airglow imagers
- 1University of Toulouse, ISAE-SUPAERO, DEOS/SSPA, Toulouse, France (raphael.garcia@isae.fr)
- 2Institute of Planetary Research, German Aerospace Center (DLR), Berlin, Germany
- 3Centre of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Technical University of Berlin, Berlin, Germany
- 4Université Paris Cité, Institut de physique du globe de Paris, CNRS, Paris, France
- 5Department of Informatics, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
- 6NORSAR, Kjeller, Norway
- 7School of Earth Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
- 8ETH Zürich, Switzerland
- 9LATMOS/IPSL, Sorbonne Université, UVSQ Université Paris-Saclay, CNRS, Paris, France
- 10Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, USA
- 11Seismological Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, USA
- 12Royal Holloway, University of London, London, UK
- 13INAF, Istituto di Astrofisica e Planetologia Spaziali, Rome, Italy
- 14Department of Geosciences, University of Padova, Padova, Italy
The relatively unconstrained internal structure of Venus is a missing piece in our understanding of the Solar System formation and evolution. To determine the seismic structure of Venus' interior, the detection of seismic waves generated by venusquakes is crucial, as recently shown by the new seismic and geodetic constraints on Mars' interior obtained by the InSight mission. In the next decades multiple missions will fly to Venus to explore its tectonic and volcanic activity, but they will not be able to conclusively report on seismicity or detect actual seismic waves.
Looking towards the next fleet of Venus missions in the future, various concepts to measure seismic waves have already been explored in the past decades. These detection methods include typical geophysical ground sensors already deployed on Earth, the Moon, and Mars; pressure sensors on balloons; and airglow imagers on orbiters to detect ground motion, the infrasound signals generated by seismic waves, and the corresponding airglow variations in the upper atmosphere.
Here, we provide a first comparison between the detection capabilities of these different measurement techniques and recent estimates of Venus' seismic activity.
In addition, we discuss the performance requirements and measurement durations required to detect seismic waves with the various detection methods. As such, our study clearly presents the advantages and limitations of the different seismic wave detection techniques and can be used to drive the design of future mission concepts aiming to study the seismicity of Venus.
How to cite: Garcia, R. F., van Zelst, I., Kawamura, T., Näsholm, S. P., Horleston, A., Klaasen, S., Lefèvre, M., Solberg, C. M., Smolinski, K. T., Plesa, A.-C., Brissaud, Q., Maia, J. S., Stähler, S. C., Lognonné, P., Panning, M., Gülcher, A., Ghail, R., and De Toffoli, B.: Seismic wave detectability on Venus using ground deformation sensors, infrasound sensors on balloons and airglow imagers, Europlanet Science Congress 2024, Berlin, Germany, 8–13 Sep 2024, EPSC2024-728, https://doi.org/10.5194/epsc2024-728, 2024.
