Abstract A large volume of scientifically and historically important data from the early exploration of Venus is not widely available to researchers. Our work is focused on ameliorating this problem with the archival of geospatial data including radar, topography, and radiometry. These surface observations date back to 1967, and we include data from the Haystack Observatory, Goldstone Observatory, Arecibo Observatory, Pioneer Venus Orbiter, Venera 9/10 Orbiters, Venera 15/16 Orbiters, and the Galileo flyby. The methods involved in this archival varied with each data set, ranging from as simple as converting images to different formats or as complex as scanning and georeferencing physical media. Finally, we produced a global radar basemap of Venus that combines the best available coverage from multiple data sets. The increased spatial, temporal, and wavelength coverage afforded by these observations will prove useful for mission planning and mapping/surveying efforts at Venus. We also identify several geospatial data sets outside this work that have not yet been adequately preserved and hope efforts can later be expanded to include in situ, atmospheric, and magnetospheric data sets.
Austin et al. (Sun,) studied this question.