Venus Magellan Microwave-Emissivity-4641m survey collection

The emissivity of a surface is defined as the thermal power emitted by that surface divided by the power emitted by a black body of the same size and at the same physical temperature. The polarization direction is horizontal (E-field tangential to surface), and the emissivity is not corrected for emission angle or surface roughness or tilt.

This data set includes all Magellan measurements in which the high-gain antenna followed the nominal look-angle profile, in which the observed emission angle varied from 48 degrees off the local vertical at periapsis (ca. 10N latitude) to 15 degrees off vertical at the 90N and 70S. To make the GEDR images, Magellan radiometer data, in the form of readings of antenna noise temperature, are corrected for antenna sidelobe effects and for emission and absorption by the Venus atmosphere.