Stunning new images taken by instruments onboard the European Space Agency's Venus Express provide a unique insight into the windy atmosphere of our neighbouring planet.

They include the polar vortex, a storm which measures a massive 2,000km in diameter, which is rotating around the pole in about two-and-a-half days.

Venus Express has also revealed that global patterns at the cloud tops are the result of variable temperatures and cloud heights.

Using the spacecraft's ultraviolet and infrared cameras, the Venus Express team, including UK scientists, have been able to compare what the planet looks like at different wavelengths, allowing them to study the physical conditions and dynamics of the planet's atmosphere.

Oxford University Professor Fred Taylor, one of the Venus Express scientists, said: "The features seen on Venus in ultraviolet light have been a puzzle to astronomers for nearly a century.

"These new images have revealed the structure in the clouds that produces them and shows how they result from complex meteorological behaviour.

"We can now study in much greater detail and try to understand the origin of features such as the large hurricane-like vortex over the north and south poles.

"Like many things on Venus, including global warming, this feature has similarities to atmospheric and environmental process on Earth, but the Venus version is much more extreme."

Observations made with the ultraviolet camera show numerous high-contrast features.

The cause is the uneven distribution of a mysterious chemical in the atmosphere that absorbs ultraviolet light, creating bright and dark zones.

But the exact chemical species that creates the high-contrast zones still remains elusive. Most simple candidates have been ruled out, and a complex compound of sulphur is now the favourite.

It will probably take measurements inside the clouds to identify it, but we do know that Venus' atmosphere is loaded with sulphur from volcanic eruptions on the surface below.

The ultraviolet images also reveal the structure of the clouds and the dynamic conditions in the atmosphere, whereas the infrared data provides information on the temperature and altitude of the cloud tops.

Professor Keith Mason, Chief Executive of the Science and Technology Facilities Council, said: "These new images provide us with a wealth of information about the atmospheric conditions of this fascinating neighbour planet.

"We can now study Venus in greater detail to understand more about its complex processes."

Observations in the infrared have been used to map the altitude of the cloud tops.

Surprisingly, the clouds in both the dark tropics and the bright mid-latitudes are located at about the same height of about 72 km above the surface.

At 60 degrees of latitude, the cloud tops start to sink, reaching a minimum of about 64 km at the eye of the huge hurricane-like vortex at the pole.

VENUS FACTFILE

• Venus was long considered to be Earth's twin planet. The two are similar in size, mass, composition, and distance from the Sun.


• Studies suggest that several billion years ago Venus was Earth-like, with oceans.


• Venus is now covered by thick, rapidly spinning clouds that trap surface heat, creating a scorched greenhouse-like world with temperatures hot enough to melt lead.


• Atmospheric pressure is so intense that standing on Venus would feel like the pressure felt 900 metres (2,952 feet) deep in Earth's oceans.


• The atmosphere of Venus is made up mainly of carbon dioxide, and thick clouds of sulfuric acid completely cover the planet, which sometimes fall as rain.


• Venus reflects so much sunlight it is usually the brightest planet in the night sky.


• Venus has no planetary magnetic field.


• A year on Venus lasts 224 days. A day on Venus is 243 days.


• The sun rises in the west and sets in the east, opposite to Earth.


• Venus has no moon. It is believed to have collided with the planet at some point in its history.