At ultraviolet wavelengths cloud patterns become distinctive. The polar regions are bright, possibly showing a haze of small particles overlying the main clouds. The dark regions show the location of enhanced sulfur dioxide near the cloud tops. From previous missions, astronomers know that such features travel east to west along with the Venus' prevailing winds, to make a complete circuit around the planet in four days. This is a global view of the surface of Venus centered at 180 degrees east longitude.
Simulated color is used to enhance small-scale structure.
The surface of Venus is displayed in these five global views. The bright region near the center in the polar view is Maxwell Montes, the highest mountain range on Venus. This hemispheric view of Venus, as revealed by more than a decade of radar investigations culminating in the 1990-1994 Magellan mission, is centered at 0 degrees east longitude. The effective resolution of this image is about 3 kilometers. It was processed to improve contrast and to emphasize small features, and was color-coded to represent elevation.