Atmosphere of Venus
In 1761, Russian polymath Mikhail Lomonosov observed an arc of light surrounding the part of Venus off the Sun's disc at the beginning of the egress phase of the transit and concluded that Venus has an atmosphere. In 1940, Rupert Wildt calculated that the amount of CO in the Venusian atmosphere would raise surface temperature above the boiling point for water. This was confirmed when Mariner 2 made radiometer measurements of the temperature in 1962. In 1967, Venera 4 confirmed that the atmosphere consisted primarily of carbon dioxide.
Atmosphere of Venus
The clouds of Venus may be capable of producing lightning, and the Soviet Venera 9 and 10 orbiters obtained optical and electromagnetic evidence of lightning . The European Space Agency's "Venus Express" in 2007 detected whistler waves which were attributed to lightning. Their intermittent appearance indicates a pattern associated with weather activity. According to the whistler observations, the lightning rate is at least half of that on Earth.