This mosaic is composed of more than 40 single ultraviolet
images obtained by the Venus Monitoring Camera (VMC) on board
ESA’s Venus Express when the spacecraft was around the closest
point of its orbit to the planet over the northern polar region.
The images, taken at 365 nanometres on 23 April 2007 were
obtained from decreasing distances ranging between 5000 and 1000
km, which resulted in a shrinking of the VMC field of view from
1500 to 300 km. The mosaic covers latitudes from the equator
(bottom) to the northern polar regions (top). The transition
from mottled clouds at low latitudes to streaky patterns at mid-
latitudes is quite similar to that observed in the southern
hemisphere. This suggests a global north-south symmetry of the
overall cloud structure at Venus