On the estimation of Sulfuric Acid Vapor concentrations below the Venus cloud deck using the Akatsuki Radio Science Experiment

[2601.08507] On the estimation of Sulfuric Acid Vapor concentrations below the Venus cloud deck using the Akatsuki Radio Science Experiment Skip to main content Search Submit Donate Log in Astrophysics > Earth and Planetary Astrophysics arXiv:2601.08507 (astro-ph) [Submitted on 13 Jan 2026] Title: On the estimation of Sulfuric Acid Vapor concentrations below the Venus cloud deck using the Akatsuki Radio Science Experiment Authors: S. Banerjee , R. K. Choudhary , K. R. Tripathi , T. Imamura , H. Ando View PDF HTML (experimental) Abstract: We report new constraints on the vertical distribution of sulfuric acid vapor in the Venusian atmosphere, derived from a refined analysis of radio occultation (RO) data. The method estimates the power spectral density (PSD) of the received signal to recover both the signal intensity and the Doppler shift. The received signal power is estimated at 1-sec cadence which enhances the sensitivity and detection of the signal at lower altitudes of Venus, even in regions of high atmospheric opacity. After correcting total attenuation for refractive losses, absorption by known microwave absorbers is removed, leaving a residual signal attributable to sulfuric acid vapor. Two different methods of estimating the absorption due to Sulfur Dioxide have been presented, including one which incorporates in-situ data, which should better constrain the sulfuric acid vapor abundance below the clouds. Retrieved profiles for altitudes of 40 - 50 km reveal an increasing vapor abundance to more than 10 ppm below the clouds, and a sharp decline above 50 km in line with the expected saturation profile. These measurements agree with current models of the Venusian cloud structure and composition, and demonstrate that RO data, when coupled with optimized spectral analysis, can yield quantitative constraints on trace absorbers in optically thick atmospheres. Comments: 18 pages, 10 figures, Accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal Subjects: Earth and Planetary Astrophysics (astro-ph.EP) Cite as: arXiv:2601.08507 [astro-ph.EP] (or arXiv:2601.08507v1 [astro-ph.EP] for this version) https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2601.08507 Focus to learn more arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite Related DOI : https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ae3728 Focus to learn more DOI(s) linking to related resources Submission history From: Soumyaneal Banerjee [ view email ] [v1] Tue, 13 Jan 2026 12:42:25 UTC (871 KB) Full-text links: Access Paper: View PDF HTML (experimental) TeX Source view license Current browse context: astro-ph.EP < prev | next > new | recent | 2026-01 Change to browse by: astro-ph References & Citations NASA ADS Google Scholar Semantic Scholar export BibTeX citation Bookmark Bibliographic Tools Bibliographic and Citation Tools Bibliographic Explorer Toggle Bibliographic Explorer ( What is the Explorer? ) Connected Papers Toggle Connected Papers ( What is Connected Papers? ) Litmaps Toggle Litmaps ( What is Litmaps? ) scite.ai Toggle scite Smart Citations ( What are Smart Citations? ) Code, Data, Media Code, Data and Media Associated with this Article alphaXiv Toggle alphaXiv ( What is alphaXiv? ) Links to Code Toggle CatalyzeX Code Finder for Papers ( What is CatalyzeX? ) DagsHub Toggle DagsHub ( What is DagsHub? ) GotitPub Toggle Gotit.pub ( What is GotitPub? ) Huggingface Toggle Hugging Face ( What is Huggingface? ) ScienceCast Toggle ScienceCast ( What is ScienceCast? ) Demos Demos Replicate Toggle Replicate ( What is Replicate? ) Spaces Toggle Hugging Face Spaces ( What is Spaces? ) Spaces Toggle TXYZ.AI ( What is TXYZ.AI? ) Related Papers Recommenders and Search Tools Link to Influence Flower Influence Flower ( What are Influence Flowers? ) Core recommender toggle CORE Recommender ( What is CORE? ) IArxiv recommender toggle IArxiv Recommender ( What is IArxiv? ) Author Venue Institution Topic About arXivLabs arXivLabs: experimental projects with community collaborators arXivLabs is a framework that allows collaborators to develop and share new arXiv features directly on our website. Both individuals and organizations that work with arXivLabs have embraced and accepted our values of openness, community, excellence, and user data privacy. arXiv is committed to these values and only works with partners that adhere to them. Have an idea for a project that will add value for arXiv's community? Learn more about arXivLabs . Which authors of this paper are endorsers? | Disable MathJax ( What is MathJax? ) We gratefully acknowledge support from our major funders , member institutions , and all contributors. About · Help · Contact · Subscribe · Copyright · Privacy · Accessibility · Operational Status (opens in new tab) Major funding support from

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