1. Observing Venus From a Balloon Platform Ohio Aerospace Institute Cleveland, Ohio

2. Venus Investigations Venus volcanism from emissivity mapping at near infrared wavelengths, following Smrekar et al. Detection of optical signature of lightning Investigation of the night side circulation of the lower and middle cloud level Investigation of the day side circulation of Venus Detection of airglow

3. Observations Imaging cube 1 – 2.5 µ @ ~ 0.1 arcsec Multispectral imaging 270 – 1300 nm with ~ 50 nm resolution at selected ranges Lightning Detection @ 773 nm

4. Hot spots associated with topography and high emmmissivity, recent volcanism Global view of the hemispheric Venus vortex on the day and night side from VIRTIS during insertion orbit New result from Venus Express VMC Camera images: Asymmetric structure Discovery of O 3, OH, Detection of CO 2 isotopologues: 12C16O16O, 12C16O17O, 12C16O18O Continued detection of “whistlers” VIRTIS Magellan SAR VMC 1000 nm image composiite view of surface

5. Recent…. MESSENGER Fly-by Messenger Flyby – 2006 & 2007 – tested instruments for Mercury Filtered MDIS Image (558 nm) MDIS 630 nm Visible and Infrared Observations of Venus Test Fired the Laser Altimeter from > 200 km at Venus (1032 nm)