Discharge current measurements on Venera 13 & 14 - Evidence for charged aerosols in the Venus lower atmosphere?

Measurements of discharge currents on the Venera 13 and 14 landers during their descent in the lowest 35 km of the Venus atmosphere are interpreted as driven either by an ambient electric field, or by deposition of charge from aerosols. The latter hypothesis is favored (`triboelectric charging' in aeronautical parlance), and would entail an aerosol opacity and charge density somewhat higher than that observed in Saharan dust transported over long distances on Earth.