The horizontal variation of infrared heating is calculated for the Venusian mesophere and adjoining layers in the stratosphere and lower thermosphere. The calculation assumes no horizontal temperature variation. Very large heating rates at the subsolar point reaching ∼1000K. (earth day)−1 are calculated at pressures between 1 and 0.1 μb. Between 0.1 and 0.0l μb, the 15 μ NLTE source function increases with an increase of near-infrared heating. Consequently, there is a large solar zenith variation of 15 μ hot-band cooling that cancels roughly half the near-infrared heating at these levels. It is suggested that the large horizontal variation of heating at 1 μb cannot he completely balanced by adiabatic cooling in the absence of horizontal temperature variation, so the 15 μ emission might be expected to vary horizontally by as much as a factor of 2. At altitudes below the 100-μb level, the horizontal variation of temperature should be entirely negligible.