THE 825-1110-ANGSTROM EUV SPECTRUM OF VENUS

On 15 August 1994 we launched the EUVS sounding rocket payload to obse rve the 825-1110 Angstrom region of Venus's far ultraviolet airglow sp ectrum. The EUVS telescope/spectrograph obtained good data at five tim es higher spectral resolution than was previously available in the far ultraviolet. We present these data and compare our results to those o btained by the Galileo WS and Venera 11/12 W spectrophotometers. We id entify several new spectral emission features, including both singly i onized nitrogen and molecular nitrogen in Venus's spectrum. We also se e evidence for electron-impact-induced emission from CO. Finally, the EUVS data indicate that the ''Ar'' emissions detected in Venus's far u ltraviolet spectrum by Venera 11/12 spectrophotometers are in fact not due to argon, thus eliminating the discrepancy between in situ and re mote sensing measurements. (C) 1996 Academic Press, Inc.