The radar altimeter carried aboard the Pioneer Venus orbiter spacecraft has yielded a topographic map covering 93% of the Venus globe, with a linear surface resolution of better than 150 km. Vertical measurement accuracy exceeds 200 m. Extremes in relief (expressed as a center-of-mass-to-surface radius) extend from a low of 6049 km to a high of 6062 km. Only about 5% of the observed surface is elevated more than 2 km above the mean radius (6051.5¿0.1 km). Although the elevated terrain comprises a number of separated components, it is dominated by a massive equatorial region the size of South America. Of the total surface, 60% lies within 500 km, and 20% within 125 m, of the modal radius (6051.1 km). The planetary polar ellipticity is nearly zero, with an upper bound of 4¿10-5. In addition to the surface relief, the distribution of average meter-scale surface slopes, in the observable range from 1¿ to 10¿, is determined for the same regions and at the same footprint resolution, as in the altimetric observations. Elevated areas have generally higher values of average slope; most features seen in the earth-based images are also seen in the vertical-incidence spacecraft observations, although a few exceptions are noted. Of interest are several very long (up to nearly 5000 km, in one case), thin, and relatively straight parallel features, not hitherto reported on Venus. |