The Sky on Mars


Going further out in the solar system, here is a rendering of the sky and asscending sun as seen from the surface of Mars (click image for larger view and here for an index of frames (both 8-bit and 16-bit) and here for an MP4 animation) . Mars has more dust and less gas compared with Earths' atmosphere, making for an interesting comparison. Near the sun, the size of the dust particles produces a bluish tint due to particle size in Mie scattering. Farther from the sun, the iron oxide composition switches the hue to slightly reddish. This uses aerosol parameters from the CRISM instrument. Here is another set of frames based on the Viking mission .

2018 update


Here is a new sequence of frames and animation with various refinements, particularly to the sky brightness pattern and color near the horizon for various solar altitudes. A slice of land surface is also added.

The Mars dust storm at the end of the Opportunity rover's mission is shown as an animation with various optical depths and stripes with varying aerosol optical depth . The overall illumination becomes a dull red as the dust thickens. A difference from a thick dust storm on Earth is that the faint sun becomes more blue in color.

Monte Carlo version (updated July 2023)


I can report on some progress with a Monte Carlo planetary atmosphere simulation program. Here is a Monte Carlo sequence of frames . Please note that the image frame directory links on this page contain both 8-bit and 16-bit images every 2 degrees of solar elevation. The 16-bit images have extended dynamic range to prevent loss of detail due to bright/dark saturation. They may appear dark in a standard browser, though can be rescaled with the right software to reside in the brightness range of interest.

Optical properties are assumed for the phase function and single scattering albedo. The phase function is shown for 615nm, 551nm, and 450nm in the plot below. The single scattering albedos at these three wavelengths are 0.922, 0.797, and 0.690. Aerosol optical depth is 0.40. Most of the sky has a slight strawberry or butterscotch color. Very close to the sun the color becomes more neutral or bluish. This happens at sunrise/sunset and also throughout the day. In the 8-bit frames the color change near the sun is difficult to see due to saturation, though can be noted in the 16-bit images.

By comparison, aerosols on Earth can also look bluish very near the sun due to the size parameter variation with wavelength and associated sharper forward scattering peak. However this isn't too noticeable when superimposed on the blue sky of Rayleigh scattering by air molecules. It can also be difficult to (safely) view the colors of the bright forward scattering right next to the sun. Sunsets are different for additional reasons related to the sunlight reddening effects of Rayleigh extinction.

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