Modern planetary science at Oxford can be traced back to the work of Edmund Halley (1656-1742), who, in addition to being a pioneering geophysicist and oceanographer, made observations of Mars, Venus, and Mercury, as well as his famous studies of the orbits of comets.

Today we are involved in instrumentation, analysis and modelling in connection with European and American space missions to all of the planets known in Halley's time. This research is supported by a consolidated rolling grant from the Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council.

A study has shown the importance of making infrared measurements of Mercury from the Planetary Orbiter component of the forthcoming European BepiColombo mission. These can be used to study the heat flux from the interior, the physical properties of different regions on the surface of the planet, the condensate deposits at the poles and their relationship to the tenuous atmosphere. Suitable instrumentation is being developed as the basis for a flight proposal.

Part of the payload of the first artificial satellite of Venus - Pioneer Venus Orbiter in 1979 - was built at Oxford. Data analysis from this instrument, the Venus Orbiter Radiometric Temperature Sounding Experiment (VORTEX), is still being analysed, in collaboration with colleagues who made similar observations from the VENERA series of Venus probes. Oxford scientists were also part of the team that observed Venus with the NIMS instrument on the Galileo spacecraft in 1991.

More recently, we have worked with American, Japanese and European groups to develop new opportunities for investigating Venus, and its deep, hot atmosphere and mysterious dynamics. The Japanese mission has now been approved, and looks likely to be followed by Venus Express, a European mission scheduled for launch in 2005. We retain an interest in these projects at Oxford, and a general circulation model of Venus's atmosphere is also being developed (q.v.).

In terms of the scientific goals, and the experimental and theoretical techniques employed, there is a lot of commonality between the extensive programme of Earth Observation at Oxford and our studies of the other planets with atmospheres. The planetary system formed and evolved as a family, and its common origin may be traced through comparative planetology. It is also the case that studies of, for example, the greenhouse effect on Venus, giant eddies on Jupiter and water vapour on Mars can shed light on the analogous terrestrial climate-related processes.

The Department's third space mission to Mars in collaboration with colleagues in the USA, is scheduled for launch in 2005, and the flight hardware is presently under construction. A sophisticated general circulation model of Mars' atmosphere has been developed with colleagues in France and Spain over an extended period and is now the most advanced in the world. Space experiment data on atmospheric temperature, composition and dust loading can be directly assimilated into the model, allowing diagnostics and even forecasts to be made using similar methods to terrestrial meteorology.

Instruments to be operated on the surface of Mars include the wind sensor on the Beagle 2 lander, and the meteorological experiment on the network of surface stations (NetLander) to be deployed in 2007.

Oxford scientists helped to develop the Near Infrared Mapping Spectrometer on the Galileo Jupiter Orbiter, which has been observing the giant planet for over five years now. The huge amount of data acquired is gradually being analysed in terms of the structure, composition, cloud physics and meteorology of Jupiter. Dynamical modelling of Jupiter's atmosphere is also underway, with emphasis on trying to understand the banded structure and the dynamics of the giant eddies, including the Great Red Spot. Cassini (see below) recently flew by Jupiter on its way to Saturn, and produced an additional data set which complements that from Galileo.

As part of the science team for the European ROSETTA mission to comet Wirtanen, we plan to study the structure and properties of the comet's atmosphere (coma), including determining its composition and non-equilibrium chemistry.

In addition to the development of space instruments, the planetary programme at Oxford requires extensive laboratory work on the calibration of instruments and sensors, and on the spectroscopy of planetary atmospheric gases and solid and liquid cloud materials. For example, one of our current doctoral students, Colin Wilson, is calibrating the Beagle 2 and NetLander wind sensors in a special wind tunnel (see picture). Another student, Neil Bowles, is measuring the spectral properties of methane and ammonia at the infrared wavelengths used to study them on Jupiter. Carly Howett is working with our collaborators in California to obtain the spectral properties of the solid ammonia and ammonium hydrosulphide clouds that are found in the atmospheres of the outer planets.

Elsewhere on this web site details can be found of the department's work on numerical general circulation models of planetary atmospheres, including Mars, Venus and Jupiter, and on laboratory simulations of dynamical behaviour of rotating fluids. Theoretical work on radiative transfer in planetary and comet atmospheres is also undertaken.