Response of Venus exospheric temperature measured by neutral mass spectrometer to solar EUV flux measured by Langmuir probe on the Pioneer Venus orbiter

Abstract

The photoelectron current from the Pioneer Venus Langmuir probe has provided measurements of the total flux of solar EUV photons at Venus since 1979. The neutral oxygen scale height measured by the orbiter neutral mass spectrometer has permitted the exospheric temperature to be derived during the same mission. In this paper the EUV observations are used to examine the response of exospheric temperature to changes in solar activity, primarily those related to solar rotation. It is found that the dayside exospheric temperature quite faithfully tracks variations in the EUV flux. Comparison is also made with the Earth-based solar activity index F _10.7 adjusted to the position of Venus. This index varied from 142 to 249 flux units (10^-22 W m^-2 Hz^-1) during the period of measurements. The exospheric temperature is better correlated with EUV flux than with the 10.7-cm solar radio flux.