Colorful Venus

This hemispheric view of Venus was created using more than a decade of radar investigations culminating in the 1990 1994 Magellan mission, and is centeredon the planets North Pole. The Magellan spacecraft imaged more than 98 percent of Venus and a mosaic of the Magellan images forms the image base. Gaps in the Magellan coverage were filled with images from the Earth based Arecibo radar in a region centered roughly on 0 degree latitude and longitude, and with a neutral tone elsewhere (primarily near the South Pole). This composite image is color coded to show elevation.