Ultraviolet Mars Reveals Cloud Formation

Images from MAVEN's Imaging UltraViolet Spectrograph were used to make this movie of rapid cloud formation on Mars on July 9-10, 2016. The ultraviolet colors of the planet have been rendered in false color, to show what we would see with ultraviolet-sensitive eyes. The movie uses four MAVEN images to show about 7 hours of Mars rotation during this period, and interleaves simulated views that would be seen between the four images. Mars' day is similar to Earth’s, so the movie shows just over a quarter day. The left part of the planet is in morning and the right side in afternoon. Mars’ prominent volcanoes, topped with white clouds, can be seen moving across the disk. Mars’ tallest volcano, Olympus Mons, appears as a prominent dark region near the top of the images, with a small white cloud at the summit that grows during the day. Olympus Mons appears dark because the volcano rises up above much of the hazy atmosphere which makes the rest of the planet appear lighter. Three more volcanoes appear in a diagonal row, with their cloud cover merging to span up to a thousand miles by the end of the day. These images are particularly interesting because they show how rapidly and extensively the clouds topping the volcanoes form in the afternoon. Similar processes occur at Earth, with the flow of winds over mountains creating clouds. Afternoon cloud formation is a common occurrence in the American West, especially during the summer.

Credit: NASA/MAVEN/University of Colorado

[micboq]

Note that this animation is based on only these 4 still images:

The images are projected onto a sphere and faded one with another, based on each shot's geolocation and time. So don't be misled by the dynamics shown in this animation, this is just the fading of successive images with a significant time interval.

This is the same technique used by @Blueturn (and maybe inspired from them): they've been using still images from NASA's DSCOVR to create an animation of the clouds over a rotating Earth. Actually the effect is much more successful with Blueturn's images, because the key source images are closer, and also because of the higher level of finishing of the interpolation algorithm. See for example this video:

[vidalife]

will somebody please answer this question how come with the capability that we have to see in high definition the farthest planets away with HD pics yet with this same capability not be able to get HD definition photos of the atmosphere or Surface on the nearest planets keep in mind that these planets ARE thousands to Millions light years away or miles from one another. sorry if its a dumb question just wondering

[SpaceNavy]

Woah is that clouds over the volcanos?

[xic]

I wonder if the magnetic field of Mars has increased.

[DarknezzMadnezz]

clouds means humidity, now just need to figure out if thats water or acid. my money is on acid