This frame has been taken on the 15th Sol of the NASA - Mars Pathfinder Lander (which landed in Ares Vallis at 02:56:55 Mars Local Solar Time - such as during the night - on the date of July, 4, of the AD 1997) and the Clouds that we can see , since they are made of Water-Ice, make Martian Sky take on a more bluish color. This phenomenon happened because extremely small Ice Particles , like the ones that formed the Clouds that we are looking at in today's APOD (and which are, perhaps, 1/10th the size of the Martian Dust, or 1/1000th the thickness of a human hair), are bright in blue light, but almost invisible in red light.

(note: we, as IPF, deeply apologize to you for the very poor quality of the frame but we did the best we could in order to improve its original size without damaging too much its - already, we have to repeat it, quite poor original - quality and so to give you a bigger and better view of the Early Martian Sky above Ares Vallis)

On the following Sol (such as the 16th) of the NASA - Mars Pathfinder Mission, the Sky was almost completely overcast (---> covered by Clouds). In particular, the Clouds that were imaged on both Soles were Stratus-like Clouds (or just "Strata"), coming from the North/East at a speed of about 15 miles per hour (such as 6,7 meters/second) and located at an altitude of approx. 10 miles (such as about 16 Km) above the Datum. The Clouds of the Sol 16 also consisted of Water-Ice, with the difference that it condensed on orange/reddish Dust Particles suspended in the Atmosphere and therefore, rather than bluish, they looked of a pale pink/orange color.

As we might have already written in the past, the Clouds on Mars are often localized and they also can, sometime, make it to cover entire Regions but - and at least so far - thay have not been observed to cover the entire Red Planet.

 

This frame has been colorized in Absolute Natural Colors (such as the colors that a human eye would actually perceive if someone were near the NASA - Mars Pathfinder Lander and then looked towards the Horizon and Sky of Mars), by using an original technique created - and, in time, dramatically improved - by the Lunar Explorer Italia Team.