Image Credit: JAXA, ISAS, DARTS; Processing & Copyright: Damia Bouic

Akatsuki (Venus Climate Observer) is a Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) mission. They maintain a user access site at https://darts.isas.jaxa.jp/planet/project/akatsuki/ with PDS acting as a mirror site. The data is certified.

News

2023-12-01
  • New release of datasets of UVI and LIR are available. This is the 2nd release of PDS4 Standards compliant VCO Akatsuki UVI and LIR bundles. This release includes UVI and LIR data acquired during 2022-06-09 to 2022-12-02. Please refer Release Notes file for the detailed list of changes. 2023-08-01
    • New release of datasets of UVI, LIR, RS, and SPICE are available. This is the 1st release of PDS4 Standards compliant VCO Akatsuki UVI, LIR, and RS bundles. This release includes UVI and LIR data acquired during 2021-12-02 to 2022-06-08 and RS data acquired during 2020-08-02, 2021, and 2022 and released as both of PDS3 datasets and PDS4 bundle. Please refer Release Notes file for the detailed list of changes.


    2022-12-06
    • Updated cloud motion vector dataset derived from UVI and IR2 images.


    2022-12-01
    • New releases of datasets of UVI, LIR, and SPICE are available. The datasets of UVI and LIR include data acquired during 2020-06-07 to 2021-12-02. This is the 1st release of PDS4 Standards compliant VCO Akatsuki SPICE Archive Bundle. It contains new data for 2021. Please note that the PDS3-compliant VCO Akatsuki SPICE Kernel Dataset had been superseded by the PDS4 VCO Akatsuki SPICE Archive Bundle. Please refer Release Notes file for the detailed list of changes.


    2022-05-24
    • New releases of datasets of UVI and LIR are available. The datasets of UVI and LIR include data acquired during 2020-12-01 to 2021-06-07. Please refer Release Notes file for the detailed list of changes.

    2022-05-06
    • Quick look image products for RS L4 data are now available. Please refer Release Notes file for the detailed list of changes.

    2021-12-21
    • New release of cloud motion vector dataset derived from UVI and IR2 images is available. Please refer Release Notes file for the detailed list of changes.

    2021-12-01
    • New releases of datasets of UVI, LIR, and RS are available. The datasets of UVI and LIR include data acquired during 2020-12-01 to 2021-06-07. The datasets of RS include data acquired during years from 2019 to 2020. Please refer Release Notes file for the detailed list of changes.

    2021-08-04
    • Updated release of LIR dataset is available. In the past releases, FITS file of LIR is not compliant with the FITS 4.0 Standard accidentally. In the updated release, the old FITS files are replaced with the updated FITS files which are compliant with the FITS 4.0 Standard. Please refer Release Notes file for the detailed list of changes.


    2021-06-21
    • Updated releases of dataset of UVI are available. These updated releases contain a bug-fixed version of the images acquired with TOP OB mode. Please refer Release Notes file for the detailed list of changes.


    2021-06-11
    • New releases of datasets of UVI, LIR, and SPICE are available. The datasets of UVI include data acquired during 2019-08-07 to 2020-06-08. The datasets of LIR include data acquired during 2019-12-04 to 2020-06-08. The 5th release of SPICE data set is available. Please refer Release Notes file for the detailed list of changes.


    2020-12-01
    • New releases of datasets of UVI, LIR, RS, and SPICE are available. The datasets of UVI include data acquired during 2018-12-07 to 2019-08-06. The datasets of LIR include data acquired during 2018-12-07 to 2019-12-04. The datasets of RS include data acquired during 2018-02-03 to 2019-07-26. The 4th release of SPICE data set is available. Please refer Release Notes file for the detailed list of changes.


    2019-12-01
    • New releases of datasets of UVI and LIR are available. The datasets of UVI and LIR include data acquired during 2018-06-03 to 2018-12-07. Please refer Release Notes file for the detailed list of changes.


    2019-06-28
    • New releases of Level 3 data sets of UVI, LIR, IR1 and IR2 are available. The status of these data sets is changed from "release candidate". These data sets are created from peer-reviewed data sets. Directory for the data sets are moved from "staging/extras/" to "extras/". Please refer Release Notes file for the detailed list of changes.


    2019-06-20
    • Peer-review process of UVI, IR1, IR2, LIR, and RS data sets are done, so the status of these data sets are changed from "in peer review". Directory for the data sets are moved from "staging/" to the parent directory. Level 3 data sets for UVI, IR1, IR2, and LIR, corresponding to these datasets are not yet released, but will be released soon.


    2019-06-01
    • New releases of UVI and LIR data sets including L1b, geometry information, and L2 products are available. This release contains data acquired from 2010-05-21 to 2018-06-03. The current status of these products is "certified". Please refer Release Notes file for the detailed list of changes.
    • IR1, IR2, and RS data sets are updated. The current status of these data sets is "certified". Please refer Release Notes file for the detailed list of changes.


    2019-03-05
    • 3rd release of VCO SPICE data set is available.


    2018-12-28


    2018-12-01
    • The 4th release of L1b, L2b, and L2c products for UVI and LIR are available. This release contains data acquired from 2010-05-21 to 2017-12-10. The current status of these products is "certified".
    • The 2nd release of Level 3 (L3b and L3c) products for UVI and LIR are available. This release contains data acquired from 2010-12-09 to 2017-12-10. The current status of these products is "certified".
    • IR1 and IR2 data sets are updated. The current status of these data sets is "certified".
    • The 2nd release of L2, L3, and L4 products for RS are available. This release contains data acquired from 2016-03-03 to 2017-08-11. The current status of these products is "certified".


    On this Page:
    Overview
    Accessing Data



    Related Papers Please see list of publications of AKATSUKI


    Overview

    Also known as Venus Climate Orbiter (VCO) and PLANET-C, Akatsuki was successfully launched at 21:58:22 (UTC) on May 20, 2010. The main goal of the mission was to understand the Venusian atmospheric dynamics, super-rotation, and cloud physics, with the explorations of the ground surface and the interplanetary dust given lesser priority. Four cameras with narrowband filters imaged Venus at different wavelengths to track the distributions of clouds and minor gaseous constituents at different heights or to study the Venusian atmospheric dynamics in three dimensions. High cadence explorations of lightning and airglow, as well as radio occultation atmospheric profiling were also performed. After failure to gain orbit in December 2010, after orbiting the sun for five years, orbit insertion was obtained on December 7, 2015 by using the reaction control system. Akatsuki was inserted into a near equatorial orbit and maneuvered into an elliptical orbit with apoapsis altitude ~370,000 km and periapsis altitude of 1,000 -- 10,000 km, and a period of ~11 days.

    Accessing Data

    UVI - Ultraviolet Imager --Si-CCD (1024 X 1024 pixels) -- Field of View: 12° X 12°

    UVI obtained images from April 2016 through June 6, 2018 through narrow bandpass filters centered at the 283 and 365 nm wavelengths to map the SO2 distribution and analyze cloud motions using images obtained typically at 2-hr intervals to map wind vectors. The UVI images have spatial resolutions ranging from 200 m to 86 km at sub-spacecraft points with signal-to-noise ratios of over 100 after onboard desmearing processing.

    Assessing the usability of the data before downloading data files
    Determining Instrument Characteristics
    Downloading the index and label (note: This table contains extensive geometric information that will allow you to “slice and dice” based on selected parameters.) Data is available from May 21, 2010 - June 03, 2018.


    Raw Data
    Volume 1
    Volume 2
    Volume 3
    Volume 4
    Volume 5
    Volume 6
    Volume 7

    Calibrated Data
          Dates IncludedNumber of Products
    Volume 1Index (csv)2010-05-21 to 2018-06-039957
    Volume 2Index (csv)2018-06-03 to 2018-12-07 2926
    Volume 3 Index (csv)2018-12-07 to 2019-08-063807
    Volume 4Index (csv)2019-08-06 to 2020-06-084030
    Volume 5 Index (csv)2020-06-08 to 2020-12-012435
    Volume 6 Index (csv)2020-12-01 to 2021-06-072388
    Volume 7 Index (csv)2021–06-08 to 2021-12-029396

    Note: For each FITS file there is a corresponding JPG browse file with the same names as in
    uvi_20100521_115634_365_12b_v10.jpg
    uvi_20100521_115634_365_12b_v10.fit



    Geometry Data
    Volume 1
    Volume 2
    Volume 3
    Volume 4
    Volume 5
    Volume 6
    Volume 7

    Longitude-Latitude Map Data

    Citations



    Raw Data - Murakami, S., M. Yamada, A. Yamazaki, K. McGouldrick, Y. Yamamoto, G. L. Hashimoto, Venus Climate Orbiter Akatsuki UVI Raw Data v1.0, VCO-V-UVI-2-EDR-V1.0, NASA Planetary Data System, https://doi.org/10.17597/isas.darts/vco-00002, 2018.

    Calibrated Data - Murakami, S., M. Yamada, A. Yamazaki, K. McGouldrick, Y. Yamamoto, G. L. Hashimoto, Venus Climate Orbiter Akatsuki UVI Calibrated Data v1.0, VCO-V-UVI-3-CDR-V1.0, NASA Planetary Data System, https://doi.org/10.17597/isas.darts/vco-00003, 2018.

    Geometry - Murakami, S., M. Yamada, K. McGouldrick, Y. Yamamoto, G. L. Hashimoto, Venus Climate Orbiter Akatsuki UVI Geometry Information v1.0, VCO-V-UVI-3-SEDR-V1.0, NASA Planetary Data System, https://doi.org/10.17597/isas.darts/vco-00004, 2018.

    Longitude-Latitude Map Data - Murakami, S., K. Ogohara, M. Takagi, H. Kashimura, M. Yamada, T. Kouyama, T. Horinouchi, T. Imamura, Venus Climate Orbiter Akatsuki UVI

    Longitude-Latitude Map Data v1.0, JAXA Data Archives and Transmission System, https://doi.org/10.17597/isas.darts/vco-00016, 2018.

    When you publish your own work based on the AKATSUKI UVI data, please refer to the following paper(s) or the data sets:



    Yamazaki, A., M. Yamada, Y.-J. Lee, S. Watanabe, T. Horinouchi, S. Murakami, T. Kouyama, K. Ogohara, T. Imamura, T. M. Sato, Y. Yamamoto, T. Fukuhara, H. Ando, K. Sugiyama, S. Takagi, H. Kashimura, S. Ohtsuki, N. Hirata, G. L. Hashimoto, M. Suzuki, C. Hirose, M. Ueno, T. Satoh, T. Abe, N. Ishii, and M. Nakamura, Ultraviolet imager on Venus orbiter Akatsuki and its initial results, Earth, Planets and Space, 70, 23, doi:10.1186/s40623-017-0772-6, 2018. URL (Open Access)

    Murakami, S., M. Yamada, A. Yamazaki, K. McGouldrick, Y. Yamamoto, G. L. Hashimoto, VENUS CLIMATE ORBITER UVI RAW DATA V1.0, VCO-V-UVI-2-EDR-V1.0, NASA Planetary Data System, 2018.

    Murakami, S., M. Yamada, A. Yamazaki, K. McGouldrick, Y. Yamamoto, G. L. Hashimoto, VENUS CLIMATE ORBITER UVI CALIBRATED DATA V1.0, VCO-V-UVI-3-CDR-V1.0, NASA Planetary Data System, 2018.

    Murakami, S., M. Yamada, K. McGouldrick, Y. Yamamoto, G. L. Hashimoto, VENUS CLIMATE ORBITER UVI GEOMETRY INFORMATION V1.0, VCO-V-UVI-3-SEDR-V1.0, NASA Planetary Data System, 2018.


    Data Processing Tools - See the JAXA Site



    IR1 - 1 μm Camera - Si-CSD/CCD (1024 X 1024 pixels) Field of View: 12° X 12° IR1 obtained images from April 2016, until December 09 2016 when the driving electronics for both IR1 and IR2 failed. More than 600 dayside images and about 150 nightside images (limited due to light scattered from the bright dayside) were obtained. The 0.90-μm dayside images are of sufficient quality to retrieve the wind field in the cloud region and the quality of the nightside 1.01-μm images is sufficient for a search for active volcanism. The quality of the 0.97-μm images may be insufficient to achieve the expected spatial resolution for the near-surface H2O mixing ratio retrievals.

    Assessing the usability of the data before downloading data files
    Determining Instrument Characteristics
    Downloading the index and label (note: This table contains extensive geometric information that will allow you to “slice and dice” based on selected parameters.) Data is available from May 21, 2010 - December 08, 2016.


    Raw Data
    Calibrated data
    Index of calibrated data (csv)
    Note: For each FITS file there is a corresponding JPG browse file with the same names.
    Geometry
    Longitude-Latitude Map Data

    Citations

    Raw Data - Murakami, S., M. Yamada, A. Yamazaki, S. Ohtsuki, K. McGouldrick, Y. Yamamoto, G. L. Hashimoto, Venus Climate Orbiter Akatsuki IR1 Raw Data v1.0, VCO-V-IR1-2-EDR-V1.0, NASA Planetary Data System, https://doi.org/10.17597/isas.darts/vco-00005, 2018.

    Calibrated data- Murakami, S., M. Yamada, K. McGouldrick, Y. Yamamoto, G. L. Hashimoto, Venus Climate Orbiter Akatsuki IR1 Geometry Information v1.0, VCO-V-IR1-3-SEDR-V1.0, NASA Planetary Data System, https://doi.org/10.17597/isas.darts/vco-00007, 2018.

    Geometry - Murakami, S., M. Yamada, K. McGouldrick, Y. Yamamoto, G. L. Hashimoto, Venus Climate Orbiter Akatsuki IR1 Geometry Information v1.0, VCO-V-IR1-3-SEDR-V1.0, NASA Planetary Data System, https://doi.org/10.17597/isas.darts/vco-00007, 2018.

    Longitude-Latitude Map Data Link to Murakami, S., K. Ogohara, M. Takagi, H. Kashimura, M. Yamada, T. Kouyama, T. Horinouchi, T. Imamura, Venus Climate Orbiter Akatsuki IR1 Longitude-Latitude Map Data v1.0, JAXA Data Archives and Transmission System, https://doi.org/10.17597/isas.darts/vco-00017, 2018.

    When you publish your own work based on the AKATSUKI IR1 data, please refer to the following paper(s) or the data sets:


    Iwagami, N., S. Takagi, S. Ohtsuki, M. Ueno, K. Uemizu, T. Satoh, T. Sakanoi, G. L. Hashimoto, Science requirements and description of the 1 μm camera onboard the Akatsuki Venus Orbiter, Earth, Planets and Space, 63, 487-492, doi:10.5047/eps.2011.03.007, 2011. URL (Open Access)

    Iwagami, N., T. Sakanoi, G. L. Hashimoto, K. Sawai, S. Ohtsuki, S. Takagi, K. Uemizu, M. Ueno, S. Kameda, S. Murakami, M. Nakamura, N. Ishii, T. Abe, T. Satoh, T. Imamura, C. Hirose, M. Suzuki, N. Hirata, A. Yamazaki, T. M. Sato, M. Yamada, Y. Yamamoto, T. Fukuhara, K. Ogohara, H. Ando, K. Sugiyama, H. Kashimura, T. Kouyama, Initial products of Akatsuki 1-μm camera, Earth, Planets and Space, 70, 6, doi:10.1186/s40623-017-0773-5, 2018. URL (Open Access)

    Murakami, S., M. Yamada, A. Yamazaki, S. Ohtsuki, K. McGouldrick, Y. Yamamoto, G. L. Hashimoto, VENUS CLIMATE ORBITER IR1 RAW DATA V1.0, VCO-V-IR1-2-EDR-V1.0, NASA Planetary Data System, 2018.

    Murakami, S., S. Ohtsuki, S. Kameda, K. McGouldrick, Y. Yamamoto, G. L. Hashimoto, VENUS CLIMATE ORBITER IR1 CALIBRATED DATA V1.0, VCO-V-IR1-3-CDR-V1.0, NASA Planetary Data System, 2018.

    Murakami, S., M. Yamada, K. McGouldrick, Y. Yamamoto, G. L. Hashimoto, VENUS CLIMATE ORBITER IR1 GEOMETRY INFORMATION V1.0, VCO-V-IR1-3-SEDR-V1.0, NASA Planetary Data System, 2018.


    Data Processing Tools - See The JAXA Site



    IR2 - 2 μm Camera - PtSi-CSD/CCD (1024 X 1024 pixels) – Field of View: 12° X 12°

    IR2 obtained images from April 2016 until December 09 2016. The single-stage Stirling cycle cryo-cooler of IR2 was operated with various driving voltages to achieve the best possible cooling under the given thermal environment. Dayside images at 2.02 μm and night-side images at 1.735, 2.26, and 2.32 μm were acquired. Additionally, images of stars for calibration and dark images for the evaluation of noise levels were obtained. Low-frequency flat images (not available in pre-launch calibration data) were constructed using the images of Venus acquired from near the pericenter to establish the procedure to correct for the IR2 flat-field response. Techniques for dealing with scattered light were developed and detailed astrometry, performed on star-field images in the H-band (1.65 μm), confirmed that the geometrical distortion of IR2 images was negligible.

    Assessing the usability of the data before downloading data files
    Determining Instrument Characteristics
    Downloading the index and label (note: This table contains extensive geometric information that will allow you to “slice and dice” based on selected parameters.) Data is available from May 21, 2010 - December 09, 2016.


    Raw Data
    Calibrated data
    Index of calibrated data (csv)
    Note: For each FITS file there is a corresponding JPG browse file with the same names.
    Geometry
    Longitude-Latitude Map Data

    Citations

    Raw - Murakami, S., T. Satoh, M. Yamada, A. Yamazaki, K. McGouldrick, Y. Yamamoto, G. L. Hashimoto, Venus Climate Orbiter Akatsuki IR2 Raw Data v1.0, VCO-V-IR2-2-EDR-V1.0, NASA Planetary Data System, https://doi.org/10.17597/isas.darts/vco-00008, 2018.

    Calibrated data - Murakami, S., T. Satoh, K. McGouldrick, Y. Yamamoto, G. L. Hashimoto, Venus Climate Orbiter Akatsuki IR2 Calibrated Data v1.0, VCO-V-IR2-3-CDR-V1.0, NASA Planetary Data System, https://doi.org/10.17597/isas.darts/vco-00009, 2018.

    Geometry - Murakami, S., M. Yamada, K. McGouldrick, Y. Yamamoto, G. L. Hashimoto, Venus Climate Orbiter Akatsuki IR2 Geometry Information v1.0, VCO-V-IR2-3-SEDR-V1.0, NASA Planetary Data System, https://doi.org/10.17597/isas.darts/vco-00010, 2018.

    Longitude-Latitude Map Data - Murakami, S., K. Ogohara, M. Takagi, H. Kashimura, M. Yamada, T. Kouyama, T. Horinouchi, T. Imamura, Venus Climate Orbiter Akatsuki IR2 Longitude-Latitude Map Data v1.0, JAXA Data Archives and Transmission System, https://doi.org/10.17597/isas.darts/vco-00018, 2018.

    When you publish your own work based on the AKATSUKI IR2 data, please refer to the following paper(s) or the data sets:

    Satoh, T. M. Nakamura, M. Ueno, K. Uemizu, M. Suzuki, T. Imamura, Y. Kasaba, S. Yoshida, M. Kimata, Development and in-flight calibration of IR2: 2-μm camera onboard Japan's Venus orbiter, Akatsuki, Earth, Planets and Space, 68:74, doi:10.1186/s40623-016-0451-z, 2016. URL (Open Access)

    Satoh, T., T. M. Sato, M. Nakamura, Y. Kasaba, M. Ueno, M. Suzuki, G. L. Hashimoto, T. Horinouchi, T. Imamura, A. Yamazaki, T. Enomoto, Y. Sakurai, K. Takami, K. Sawai, T. Nakakushi, T. Abe, N. Ishii, C. Hirose, N. Hirata, M. Yamada, S. Murakami, Y. Yamamoto, T. Fukuhara, K. Ogohara, H. Ando, K. Sugiyama, H. Kashimura, S. Ohtsuki, Performance of Akatsuki/IR2 in Venus orbit: the first year, Earth, Planets and Space, 69, 154, doi:10.1186/s40623-017-0736-x, 2017. URL (Open Access)

    Murakami, S., T. Satoh, M. Yamada, A. Yamazaki, K. McGouldrick, Y. Yamamoto, G. L. Hashimoto, VENUS CLIMATE ORBITER IR2 RAW DATA V1.0, VCO-V-IR2-2-EDR-V1.0, NASA Planetary Data System, 2018.

    Murakami, S., T. Satoh, K. McGouldrick, Y. Yamamoto, G. L. Hashimoto, VENUS CLIMATE ORBITER IR2 CALIBRATED DATA V1.0, VCO-V-IR2-3-CDR-V1.0, NASA Planetary Data System, 2018.

    Murakami, S., M. Yamada, K. McGouldrick, Y. Yamamoto, G. L. Hashimoto, VENUS CLIMATE ORBITER IR2 GEOMETRY INFORMATION V1.0, VCO-V-IR2-3-SEDR-V1.0, NASA Planetary Data System, 2018.


    Data Processing Tools - See The JAXA Site


    LIR - Long-wave Infrared Camera - uncooled micro bolometer array 328 X 248 pixels – Field of View 16° X 12°

    LIR obtained images from December 7, 2015 until June 3, 2018. However, brightness temperature derived from LIR 8-12 μm images contained an unexpected bias due to a thermal condition of the instrument. The bias could be partially eliminated by keeping the power supply unit active, while the residual bias was simply correlated with the baffle temperature. Therefore, deep-space images were acquired at different baffle temperatures on orbit, and a reference table for eliminating the bias from images was prepared. In the corrected images, the brightness temperature was ~ 230 K at the center of the Venus disk, where the effect of limb darkening is negligible. The result is independent of the baffle temperature and consistent with the results of previous studies.

    Assessing the usability of the data before downloading data files
    Determining Instrument Characteristics
    Downloading the index and label (note: This table contains extensive geometric information that will allow you to “slice and dice” based on selected parameters.) Data is available from May 21, 2010 - June 3, 2018.


    Raw Data
    Volume 1
    Volume 2
    Volume 3
    Volume 4
    Volume 5
    Volume 6
    Volume 7

    Calibrated Data
    Note: For each FITS file there is a corresponding JPG browse file with the same names
          Dates IncludedNumber of Products
    Volume 1 Index (csv)2010-05-21 to 2018-06-034114
    Volume 2 Index (csv)2018-06-03 to 2018-12-07 10193
    Volume 3 Index (csv)2018-12-07 to 2019-12-04 14512
    Volume 4 Index (csv)2019-12-04 to 2020-06-0816330
    Volume 5 Index (csv)2020-06-09 to 2020-12-0118818
    Volume 6 Index (csv)2020-12-01 to 2021-06-075294
    Volume 7 Index (csv)2021-06-08 to 2021-12-0220422


    Geometry Data
    Volume 1
    Volume 2
    Volume 3
    Volume 4
    Volume 5
    Volume 6
    Volume 7

    Longitude-Latitude Map Data

    Citations

    Raw Data - Murakami, S., T. Satoh, M. Yamada, A. Yamazaki, K. McGouldrick, Y. Yamamoto, G. L. Hashimoto, Venus Climate Orbiter Akatsuki IR2 Raw Data v1.0, VCO-V-IR2-2-EDR-V1.0, NASA Planetary Data System, https://doi.org/10.17597/isas.darts/vco-00011, 2018.

    Calibrated data - Murakami, S., T. Kouyama, T. Fukuhara, M. Taguchi, K. McGouldrick, Y. Yamamoto, G. L. Hashimoto, Venus Climate Orbiter Akatsuki LIR Calibrated Data v1.0, VCO-V-LIR-3-CDR-V1.0, NASA Planetary Data System, https://doi.org/10.17597/isas.darts/vco-00012, 2018.

    Geometry - Murakami, S., M. Yamada, K. McGouldrick, Y. Yamamoto, G. L. Hashimoto, Venus Climate Orbiter Akatsuki LIR Geometry Information v1.0, VCO-V-LIR-3-SEDR-V1.0, NASA Planetary Data System, https://doi.org/10.17597/isas.darts/vco-00013, 2018.

    Longitude-Latitude Map Data - Murakami, S., K. Ogohara, M. Takagi, H. Kashimura, M. Yamada, T. Kouyama, T. Horinouchi, T. Imamura, Venus Climate Orbiter Akatsuki LIR

    Longitude-Latitude Map Data v1.0, JAXA Data Archives and Transmission System, https://doi.org/10.17597/isas.darts/vco-00019, 2018.


    When you publish your own work based on the AKATSUKI LIR data, please refer to the following paper(s) or the data sets:


    Taguchi, M., T. Fukuhara, T. Imamura, M. Nakamura, N. Iwagami, M. Ueno, M. Suzuki, G. L. Hashimoto, K. Mitsuyama, Longwave infrared camera onboard the Venus Climate Orbiter, Adv. Space Res., 40, 861-868, doi:10.1016/j.asr.2007.05.085, 2007. URL

    Fukuhara, T., M. Taguchi, T. Imamura, M. Nakamura, M. Ueno, M. Suzuki, N. Iwagami, M. Sato, K. Mitsuyama, G. L. Hashimoto, R. Ohshima, T. Kouyama, H. Ando, M. Futaguchi, LIR: Longwave Infrared Camera onboard the Venus orbiter Akatsuki, Earth Planets Space, 63, doi:10.5047/eps.2011.06.019, 1009-1018, 2011. URL (Open Access)

    Fukuhara, T, M. Taguchi, T. Imamura, A. Hayashitani, T. Yamada, M. Futaguchi, T. Kouyama, T. M. Sato, M. Takamura, N. Iwagami, M. Nakamura, M. Suzuki, M. Ueno, G. L. Hashimoto, M. Sato, S. Takagi, A. Yamazaki, M. Yamada, S. Murakami, Y. Yamamoto, K. Ogohara, H. Ando, K. Sugiyama, H. Kashimura, S. Ohtsuki, N. Ishii, T. Abe, T. Satoh, C. Hirose, N. Hirata, Absolute calibration of brightness temperature of the Venus disk observed by the Longwave Infrared Camera onboard Akatsuki, Earth, Planets and Space, 69:141, doi:10.1186/s40623-017-0727-y, 2017. URL (Open Access)

    Murakami, S., T. Kouyama, T. Fukuhara, M. Yamada, A. Yamazaki, K. McGouldrick, Y. Yamamoto, G. L. Hashimoto, VENUS CLIMATE ORBITER LIR RAW DATA V1.0, VCO-V-LIR-2-EDR-V1.0, NASA Planetary Data System, 2018.

    Murakami, S., T. Kouyama, T. Fukuhara, K. McGouldrick, Y. Yamamoto, G. L. Hashimoto, VENUS CLIMATE ORBITER LIR CALIBRATED DATA V1.0, VCO-V-LIR-3-CDR-V1.0, NASA Planetary Data System, 2018.

    Murakami, S., M. Yamada, K. McGouldrick, Y. Yamamoto, G. L. Hashimoto, VENUS CLIMATE ORBITER LIR GEOMETRY INFORMATION V1.0, VCO-V-LIR-3-SEDR-V1.0, NASA Planetary Data System, 2018.


    Data Processing Tools - See The JAXA Site


    RS – Radio Occultations

    The radio occultation experiment delivered Bending Angle Profiles and Temperature/Pressure profiles from March 3, 2016 to August 11, 2017. An onboard ultra-stable oscillator (frequency: 38 MHz - Transmission frequency: 8.4 GHz) was used to generate stable X-band downlink signals needed for the experiment. Temperature profiles were successfully obtained down to ~ 38 km altitude and show distinct atmospheric structures depending on the altitude. The ionospheric electron density profiles were also successfully retrieved, showing distinct local time dependence. Akatsuki RS mainly probes the low and middle latitude regions thanks to the near-equatorial orbit in contrast to the previous radio occultation experiments using polar orbiters. Publication - Imamura et al., 2017, Earth, Planets, Space, 69:137, doi:10.1186/s40623-017-0722-3

    Assessing the usability of the data before downloading data files
    Determining Instrument Characteristics
    Downloading the index and label (note: This table contains extensive geometric information that will allow you to “slice and dice” based on selected parameters.) Data is available from March 03, 2016 – August 11, 2017.


    Raw Supporting Data
    Volume 1
    Volume 2
    Volume 3
    Volume 4

    Derived Atmospheric Profiles

    These ASCII files contain refractivity, bending angle and impact parameter profiles derived from Venus Climate Orbiter (VCO, also known as PLANET-C and AKATSUKI) radio occultation data. The raw data were processed to level 2 and converted to bending angles and impact parameters. These results were then inverted to refractive index and refractivity via an Abel transform.



    Derived Data
          Dates IncludedNumber of Products
    Volume 1
    		Index (csv)2016-03-03 to 2017-08-1168
    Volume 2
    		Index (csv)2018-02-03 to 2019-07-2635
    Volume 3
    		Index (csv)2020-02-09 to 2020-08-2448
    Volume 4
    		Index (csv)2021-01-04 to 2022-12-1372
    Note: For each FITS file there is a corresponding JPG browse file with the same names
    Bending Angle and Temperature/Pressure Profiles

    Citations

    Derived Atmospheric Profiles - Murakami, S., H. Ando, T. Imamura, Y. Yamamoto, G. L. Hashimoto, Venus Climate Orbiter Akatsuki RS Doppler Profiles v1.0, VCO-V-RS-3-OCC-V1.0, NASA Planetary Data System, https://doi.org/10.17597/isas.darts/vco-00014, 2018.

    Bending Angle and Temperature/Pressure Profiles - Murakami, S., H. Ando, T. Imamura, Y. Yamamoto, G. L. Hashimoto, Venus Climate Orbiter Akatsuki RS Bending angle/Temp/Pressure Profiles v1.0, VCO-V-RS-5-OCC-V1.0, NASA Planetary Data System, https://doi.org/10.17597/isas.darts/vco-00015, 2018


    When you publish your own work based on the AKATSUKI RS data, please refer to the following paper(s):


    Imamura, T., T. Toda, A. Tomiki, D. Hirahara, T. Hayashiyama, N. Mochizuki, Z. Yamamoto, T. Abe, T. Iwata, H. Noda, Y. Futaana, H. Ando, B. Häusler, M. Pätzold, A. Nabatov, Radio occultation experiment of the Venus atmosphere and ionosphere with the Venus orbiter Akatsuki, Earth, Planets and Space, 63, 493-501, doi:10.5047/eps.2011.03.009, 2011. URL (Open Access)

    Imamura, T., H. Ando, S. Tellmann, M. Pätzold, B. Häusler, A. Yamazaki, T. M. Sato, K. Noguchi, Y. Futaana, J. Oschlisniok, S. Limaye, R. K. Choudhary, Y. Murata, H. Takeuchi, C. Hirose, T. Ichikawa, T. Toda, A. Tomiki, T. Abe, Z. Yamamoto, H. Noda, T. Iwata, S. Murakami, T. Satoh, T. Fukuhara, K. Ogohara, K. Sugiyama, H. Kashimura, S. Ohtsuki, S. Takagi, Y. Yamamoto, N. Hirata, G. L. Hashimoto, M. Yamada, M. Suzuki, N. Ishii, T. Hayashiyama, Y. J. Lee, M. Nakamura, Initial performance of the radio occultation experiment in the Venus orbiter mission Akatsuki, Earth, Planets and Space, 69, 137, doi:10.1186/s40623-017-0722-3, 2017. URL (Open Access)

    Murakami, S., H. Ando, T. Imamura, Y. Yamamoto, G. L. Hashimoto, VENUS CLIMATE ORBITER RS DOPPLER PROFILES V1.0, VCO-V-RS-3-OCC-V1.0, NASA Planetary Data System, 2018.

    Murakami, S., H. Ando, T. Imamura, Y. Yamamoto, G. L. Hashimoto, VENUS CLIMATE ORBITER RS BENDING ANGLE/TEMP/PRESSURE PROFILES V1.0, VCO-V-RS-5-OCC-V1.0, NASA Planetary Data System, 2018.


    Data Processing Tools - See The JAXA Site


    LAC - Lightning and Airglow Camera - 8 X 8 APD matrix array – Field of View 16° X 16° Delivery of data delayed


    LAC was designed to observe the light curve of possible flashes at a sufficiently high sampling rate to discriminate lightning from other sources and could perform a more definitive search for optical emissions. LAC began lightning survey observations in December 2016.

    Publication - Takahashi et al., 2018, Earth, Planets, Space, 70:88 doi:10.1186/s40623-018-0836-2

    Data Delivery pending

    Citation - When you publish your own work based on the AKATSUKI LAC data, please refer to the following paper(s):



    Takahashi, Y., J. Yoshida, Y. Yair, T. Imamura, M. Nakamura, Lightning detection by LAC onboard the Japanese Venus climate orbiter, Planet-C, Space Sci. Rev., 137, 317-334, doi:10.1007/s11214-008-9400-x., 2008. URL

    Murakami, S., M. Imai, M. Sato, Y. Takahashi, Y. Yamamoto, G. L. Hashimoto, VENUS CLIMATE ORBITER LAC RAW DATA V1.0, VCO-V-LAC-2-EDR-V1.0, NASA Planetary Data System, 2018. Pending


    Data Processing Tools - See The JAXA Site


    Accessing SPICE data
    Archived SPICE Data Sets

    Citation - Murakami, S., Y. Yamamoto, K. McGouldrick, G. L. Hashimoto, N. Hirata, Venus Climate Orbiter Akatsuki SPICE Kernels v1.0, VCO-V-SPICE-6-V1.0, NASA Planetary Data System, https://doi.org/10.17597/isas.darts/vco-00001, 2017.

    WebGeocalc provides a convenient access to SPICE kernels – See Venus Climate Observer