Photochemical model reproduction of the topside bulge

Demonstrate a photochemical ionospheric model of Venus that successfully reproduces the observed topside bulge above the V2 layer in dayside electron density profiles.

Background

The bulge is a prominent feature above the V2 layer that existing modeling approaches have struggled to reproduce. The authors note that while mechanisms such as increased electron temperature or high atomic oxygen densities have been proposed, no photochemical model has achieved a realistic bulge reproduction to date.

Their empirical analysis suggests the bulge is unlikely to be explained primarily by photochemistry, but the explicit modeling capability to reproduce it within photochemical frameworks remains an unresolved challenge.