Since 1975, United States and Soviet Venus-orbiting spacecraft have carried out more than 190 radio occulation measurements of the vertical electron density strucure of the dayside ionosphere of Venus: 148 of these have been produced by the Pioneer Venus orbiter between 1979 and 1989; Venera 9 and 10 provided 13 measurements in 1975; and Venera 15 and 16 made 31 measurements in 1983. These measurements were made at various times of the solar cycle, including solar maximum and solar minimum. It has therefore been possible to observe the changes in the electron density structure of the dayside ionosphere of Venus that were brought about by changing solar activity. Some of the resulting observations are as follows: (1) The ionopause height is generally low for values of the solar zenith angle below about 50¿ regardless of the phase in the solar cycle. (2) At solar maximum, and at times of intermediate solar activity, the ionopause height for solar zenith angles greater than about 50¿ is highly variable, ranging from a minimum of about 200 km to a maximum of more than 1000 km. (3) At times of solar minimum the great majority of all ionopause heights for all solar zenith angles are uniformly low, lying between 200 and 300 km, with the notable exception of three Venera 9 and 10 measurements. The compressed nature of the Venus ionosphere at solar minimum is most likely produced by permeation of the ionosphere by the solar wind magnetic field, which occurs when the solar wind dynamic pressure exceeds the ionospheric plasma pressure. This happens at times of solar maximum at low solar zenith angles and when the solar wind dynamic pressure is exceptionally high. At solar minimum the Venus ionosphere, like the Martian ionosphere at all phases of the solar cycle, does not appear to have sufficient thermal pressure to balance the incident solar wind pressure. ¿ American Geophysical Union 1991