PVO VENUS ONMS CALIBRATED SUPERTHERMAL OXYGEN HIGH RES. V1.0

The individual flux and density values are computed by dividing each data value by the value of the fitting function at the corresponding time. The instrument has detected superthermal, energetic or fast ions whose energy exceeds 36 eV in the spacecraft frame of reference.

These ions were observed in early orbits during measurements of the neutral density near periapsis, have an erratic and unpredictable signature, and occur at too high an altitude to be due to the neutral atmosphere. When the altitude of periapsis increased above the point where sensible neutral density measurements could be made, the instrument was configured specifically to detect superthermal ions. In general, for orbit numbers 1 to 645, data were taken from the RPA mode.