Venus' atmosphere observed – SCIAMACHY on Envisat looks
elsewhere 17 July 2009 Pioneer-Venus visible-light image, and
Magellan radar view of Venus Scientists at the German Aerospace
Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) and the
Netherlands Institute for Space Research (SRON) have found a new
area of deployment for the SCIAMACHY (SCanning Imaging
Absorption SpectroMeter for Atmospheric CHartographY)
atmospheric instrument on the European environmental satellite
Envisat. In March and June 2009, the spectrometer, in a research
activity initiated by the DLR Remote Sensing Technology
Institute and SRON, looked away from its normal target, Earth,
towards our neighbouring inner planet Venus and investigated its
radiation at visible light and near-infrared wavelengths.
"Carrying out these observations was a great challenge, as
SCIAMACHY was not actually designed for such measurements," Dr.
Manfred Gottwald, responsible for SCIAMACHY at the DLR Remote
Sensing Technology Institute (Institut für Method