Ground-based thermal mapping of Venus:  HDO and SO2 monitoring and upper limits of NH3, PH3 and HCN at the cloud top

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

As part of a long-term monitoring program, full disk thermal maps of HDO (near 7 microns) and SO2 (near 7 and 19 microns) have been obtained at the cloud top of Venus in 2023, using the TEXES(Texas Echelon Cross-Echelle Spectrograph)  imaging spectrometer at the Infrared Telescope Facility (IRTF) at Mauna Kea Observatory. Assuming a constant D/H isotopic ratio, the water abundance has been more or less constant since 2018, at about half its value in 2012-2016. In contrast, the SO2 abundance, which was very high in 2018-2019 and very low between July 2021 and March 2023, has increased by a factor of about 5 between February and July 2023 (close to its maximum level of 2018-2019), and has remained at its high level in September 2023. The origin of these long-term variations is still unclear. In addition, stringent upper limits of NH3 (at 927-931 cm-1), PH3 (at 1161-1164 cm-1) and HCN at 744-748 cm-1) at the cloud top have been obtained in July 2023. These results will be presented and discussed.