Distribution and smoothing of Akatsuki/LIR data. Panel a : distribution of brightness temperature (gray dots) and derived cloud-tracked winds (cyan dots) as a function of local time and observation date. Black dots indicate the subsolar longitude of each image. The defined Venus date was derived by fitting a sawtooth function to the subsolar longitude. Panels b-d: 1/12 Venus-day means of brightness temperature (b), zonal wind (c), and meridional wind (d). The solid lines represent 5-Venus-day running means applied to each variable.