Properties of the I Deep Atmospheres of the Planets from Radioastronomical

Our knowledge of the composition and physical properties of planetary atmospheres is impotiant for the understanding of the origin and evolution of the planets themselves, as well as for providing a comparative basis for understanding the Earth”s atmosphere. The physical conditions of planetary atmospheres vary widely from place to place within a given atmosphere and from planet to planet. Consequently, a variety of experimental techniques is required to explore the atmospheres fully. Remote sensing using microwave techniques has been particularly productive in exploring the deep atmospheres of the giant pfanets, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune, as well as our nearest neighboring planet, Venus, whose’ atmospheric pressure at its surface is nearly 100 times that of’the Earth’s. We tifer in this chapter to the planets Venus, Jupiter, Saturrt, Uranus, and Neptune as the deep atmosphere planets. The deep atmosphere planets are continuously or nearly continuously shrouded by thick cloud layers that obscure all but their upper atmospheres from external viewing at infmred and optical wavelengths. Remote sensing of these atmospheres using infrared and optical wavelengths is limited by gaseous absorption and scat-