Low-emissivity impact craters on Venus

Abstract

An analysis of 144 impact craters on Venus has shown that 11 of these have floors with average emissivities lower than 0.8. The remaining craters have emissivities between 0.8 and 0.9, independent of the specific backscatter cross section of the crater floors. These 144 impact craters were chosen from a possible 164 craters with diameters greater than 30 km as identified by researchers for 89 percent of the surface of Venus. We have only looked at craters below 6053.5 km altitude because a mineralogical change causes high reflectivity/low emissivity above the altitude. We have also excluded all craters with diameters smaller than 30 km because the emissivity footprint at periapsis is 16 x 24 km and becomes larger at the poles.