Planetary Wind Speeds (10)

3 Name: Anonymous Scientist : 2010-07-28 13:01 ID:xbDtEZlH

Well I looked up Venus's weather for the hell of it and apparently the winds on Venus will circle the planet 4 to 5 times in a single Earth day, whereas Earth's winds move at barely 10% to 20% of its rotational speed.

Lets contrast the atmospheric compositions of the two planets:

-Venus:
Surface pressure 93 bar (9.3 MPa) or 9300 kPa
Composition ~96.5% Carbon dioxide
~3.5% Nitrogen
0.015% Sulfur dioxide
0.007% Argon
0.002% Water vapor
0.001 7% Carbon monoxide
0.001 2% Helium
0.000 7% Neon
trace Carbonyl sulfide
trace Hydrogen chloride
trace Hydrogen fluoride

-Earth:
Surface pressure 101.325 kPa (MSL)
Composition 78.08% nitrogen (N2)
20.95% oxygen (O2)
0.93% argon
0.038% carbon dioxide
About 1% water vapor (varies with climate)

So you can see that the surface pressure on Venus is positively bone shattering, the equivalent of 91.8 atmospheres, in addition to this the atmosphere is swimming in toxic greenhouse gases. The surface heat of Venus is quite hot too, more than enough to turn lead molten very quickly.

So, armed with this information, why do you think that Venus's winds move so much more quickly than Earth's?

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