JAXA Akatsuki Mission with Prof. Takehiko Satoh
ONLINE SEMINAR
9 December 2020, 4 PM (GMT+8)
The "Venus Climate Orbiter" mission was approved in the spring of 2001, was later given the Japanese name "Akatsuki", meaning the dawn. Akatsuki is the first "planetary meteorology" mission of which primary target is the Venus' super-rotating atmosphere. To obtain the 3-dimensional views of the atmosphere of Venus, Akatsuki is equipped with 5 cameras, from the ultraviolet (UVI) to the thermal infrared (LIR), plus the ultra-stable oscillator for radio science (RS). Two near-infrared cameras, IR1 and IR2, as well as the lightning/airglow camera (LAC), complete the instrument set. Akatsuki, launched on 21 May 2010, attempted the Venus orbit insertion (VOI-1) on 7 Dec 2010 but failed. After orbiting around the sun for 5 years, it finally became an orbiter around Venus at the second attempt (VOI-R1) on 7 Dec 2015. Akatsuki's unique orbit, near the equatorial plane and the same direction of motion as the Venus' super-rotation, is best suited to study the atmospheric dynamics. The major findings of Akatsuki include "stationary gravity wave features", "equatorial jets in the middle to lower clouds", "sharp and long-lived cloud discontinuity", "global structure of thermal tides", and "importance of thermal tides to the super- rotation". The mission overview and some representative findings by the mission will be presented.
Watch the launch of the Akatsuki Mission here.
About Prof. Takehiko Satoh
Takehiko Satoh is a Professor at the Department of Solar System Sciences, Institute of Space and Astronautical Science, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (ISAS/JAXA). He started his research career as a visiting scientist at the University of Hawaii in 1992, after receiving PhD from the Science University of Tokyo (SUT). Studies of Jupiter's infrared aurorae opened his way to NASA Goddard Spece Flight Center (1993-1997), and then to the Frontier Research Center for Computational Sciences, SUT (1997-2001). He has been with Japan's Venus orbiter mission, Akatsuki, since 2001, serving as PI of the IR2 near-infrared camera. He came to the current position at ISAS/JAXA in 2006 and devoted most of his time to the Akatsuki mission. He has also been the Project Scientist of the mission since the summer of 2016.
Prof. Takehiko Satoh -- Credits: https://venus.wisc.edu/missions/akatsuki/
"On Things to Come" Online Seminars
2020/2021 Schedule
23 September 2020: Prof. Geraint Jones – The Comet Interceptor Mission [YouTube/Youku]
21 October 2020: Prof. Ralph Lorenz – The Dragonfly Mission [YouTube/Youku]
4 November 2020: Prof. Wang Chi – The SMILE Mission [YouTube/Youku]
25 November 2020: Prof. Heike Rauer – The PLATO Mission [YouTube/Youku]
9 December 2020: Prof. Takehiko Satoh – The Akatsuki Mission --> Free registration
18 December, 4 PM (GMT+8): Dr. Olivier Witasse – JUICE Mission
21 December, 4 PM (GMT+8): Dr. Tomohiro Usui – Phobos Mission
13 January 2021: Prof. Weiqun Gan – The ASO-S Mission
27 January 2021: Prof. Giovanna Tinetti – The Ariel Mission
24 February 2021: Prof. Johannes Benkhoff – The BepiColombo Mission I
10 March 2021: Dr. Gabriele Cremonese – The BepiColombo Mission II
24 March 2021: Prof. Go Murakami – The BepiColombo Mission III
7 April 2021: Prof. Yoshifumi Saito – The BepiColombo Mission IV
21 April 2021: Prof. Stefano Vitale – The LISA Mission
19 May 2021: Prof. Saem Krucker – The Solar Orbiter Mission
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