Venus lightning: Comparison with terrestrial lightning

Terrestrial lightning is generated by the separation of electric charge residing on water–ice particles in clouds, a few kilometers above the electrically conducting surface of the Earth. It is detected optically, electromagnetically, and aurally. The majority of discharges occur within or between clouds with about one third discharging to the surface of the Earth. Upward-propagating lightning also occurs with effects extending into the ionosphere. On Venus, the clouds are close to 50 km above the surface of the planet, where the temperatures and pressures are near those of Earth’s surface. In contrast the atmospheric pressure near the surface of Venus is nearly 100 times that of Earth. Thus, while intra- and inter-cloud lightning is expected to occur in a manner similar to that on Earth, we do not expect discharges from the clouds to the surface to occur. Upward-going lightning may be more frequent at Venus because the ionosphere is closer to the clouds. As at Earth, Venus lightning has been detected optically and electromagnetically from a variety of platforms. We find that some of the observed properties of lightning are different at the two planets. Many of the differences in the electromagnetic waves detected by spacecraft can be attributed to effects during ionospheric propagation to the spacecraft. We review the differences in the ionospheres of Earth and Venus and how they affect observations. We use both the Pioneer Venus electric antenna observations as well as the Venus Express magnetic measurements.