Building a landscape from radar
Processed image. Publisher still from WISPR camera observations on 20 February 2021, matching the linked accelerated sequence. The clip joins camera fields; its rectangular boundaries are not terrain. Surface thermal emission makes broad landscapes visible through the clouds, while the bright limb includes atmospheric airglow. This is a photograph, not a Magellan reconstruction or an eruption movie.
NASA SVS public domain unless noted · credited original mission imagery; resized to WebP, no endorsement
· Original image source · Image licenceCompare radar-built landscapes with camera observations of the hot surface glowing through Venus’s clouds.
- World
- Venus
- Case date or period
- Radar reconstructions · released 1991; camera observations · 2020–2021
Look closer
Magellan radar and topographic information can be combined into perspective views of Venus. These products make volcanoes and highland margins easier to visualise.
Follow the evidence
The views are computer-generated projections of measured terrain, with processing choices such as vertical exaggeration documented by their sources. They are not photographs taken by a low-flying camera.
A reconstructed landscape can lead back to change measurements
Robert Herrick and Scott Hensley revisited Magellan radar observations of a vent near Maat Mons acquired eight months apart in 1991. They tested whether different radar viewing angles could account for its apparent change in shape and concluded that volcanic activity was the likely explanation. This is a comparison of measured radar scenes, supported by simulation, rather than an eruption movie. It gives a separate kind of evidence from the perspective landscapes here, whose camera position and displayed relief are chosen during reconstruction.
A camera catches the surface glowing
Brian Wood and colleagues found that WISPR, built to watch the Sun’s surroundings, could also detect Venus’s hot nightside surface. Long visible and near-infrared wavelengths pass through the clouds, revealing broad terrain that can be compared with Magellan measurements. Cooler highlands appear darker than hotter lowlands; atmospheric airglow outlines the limb. The camera sequence adds real observations to the radar-built landscapes, while brightness still mixes surface temperature, material and atmosphere rather than uniquely identifying a mineral.
Sources & further reading
- Venus - 3-D Perspective View of Sif Mons — NASA Image and Video Library / JPL
- Venus - 3-D Perspective View of Gula Mons — NASA Image and Video Library / JPL
- Venus - 3-D Perspective View of Eastern Edge of Alpha Regio — NASA Image and Video Library / JPL
- NASA’s Magellan Data Reveals Volcanic Activity on Venus — Herrick and Hensley investigation — Original investigators / research publisher
- WISPR nightside observations and Magellan comparisons — original media — NASA Goddard Scientific Visualization Studio / APL / NRL
- Parker’s unexpected view through Venus’s clouds — Wood and colleagues — Original investigator account / NASA Goddard