Earth’s clouds can contain liquid-water droplets, ice crystals, or both. Present-day clouds on Mars are made of water ice or frozen carbon dioxide (dry ice): Mars is too cold and its atmosphere too thin for the familiar liquid-water cloud phase. Some Martian water-ice clouds resemble thin Earth cirrus, but their ingredients, patterns, and effects reflect a very different atmosphere.
What are clouds on Mars made of?
A cloud is made of tiny condensed particles suspended in the atmosphere. On Earth, those particles may be liquid-water droplets, ice crystals, or a mixture. NASA describes present-day Martian clouds as either water-ice particles or carbon-dioxide ice particles. The latter are frozen atmospheric carbon dioxide—not frozen water or water vapor. NASA’s cloud explainer outlines the difference.
Water-ice clouds
Water-ice clouds form when atmospheric conditions allow water vapor to condense and freeze. Their formation depends on temperature, available water, and particles that can help ice crystals start growing. NASA modeling describes atmospheric dust as a possible source of these ice nuclei when conditions are favorable. NASA Advanced Supercomputing’s overview discusses dust’s role in Martian cloud formation.
Carbon-dioxide-ice clouds
Under especially cold conditions, carbon dioxide can freeze out of the atmosphere and form dry-ice clouds. These are distinct from water-ice clouds, and observations do not establish a complete explanation for why some twilight carbon-dioxide clouds appear in one location rather than elsewhere. NASA describes those unresolved questions in its Curiosity cloud report.
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How do Martian clouds compare with Earth clouds?
| Feature | Earth | Mars |
|---|---|---|
| Cloud particles | Liquid-water droplets, ice crystals, or mixtures of the two. | Water ice or carbon-dioxide ice, according to NASA’s description of present-day clouds. |
| Liquid-water clouds | Common cloud phase in the atmosphere. | Not the familiar cloud phase under Mars’s low-temperature, low-pressure conditions. |
| A useful visual comparison | High, thin cirrus clouds are made of ice crystals. | Some thin water-ice clouds can look cirrus-like, but the analogy does not make the planets’ cloud systems equivalent. |
| Atmospheric setting | Clouds occur within varied terrestrial climates and weather systems. | Clouds form in a colder, thinner atmosphere, with seasonal and regional patterns. |
The key difference is not simply that Mars is colder. Earth clouds participate in a water cycle that includes liquid droplets; Martian clouds, as described by NASA, are ice clouds. A cirrus-like appearance is a limited comparison of form, not proof that the same processes or weather are at work. NASA-hosted research discusses terrestrial high-altitude cloud analogies for some Martian mesospheric observations: the study of Martian mesospheric clouds.
How high do Martian clouds form?
Most Martian clouds in a NASA report hover no more than 37 miles (60 kilometers) above the ground. In a 2023 report, NASA also described higher twilight clouds observed by the Curiosity rover; those clouds were thought likely to consist of carbon-dioxide ice. The altitude figure refers to most clouds in that report, not a ceiling for every cloud type or observation. NASA’s 2023 Curiosity report describes the observation.
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Where and when do Martian clouds appear?
Mars’s clouds vary by season and location rather than forming one uniform global layer. NASA’s multi-year climatology of water-ice aerosols, based on five Mars years of Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter/CRISM observations, reports water-ice clouds in equatorial and polar settings. The study concerns water-ice aerosols; its observation period should not be read as a complete census of every Martian cloud type. The CRISM water-ice aerosol climatology gives details of the observations.
NASA has also described clouds associated with Mars’s equatorial volcanoes. Their regional association is another reason not to treat the planet’s clouds as a simple copy of Earth’s cirrus or weather systems. NASA JPL’s report on clouds observed by Curiosity covers the volcano-related clouds.
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Why do clouds matter in Mars’s thin atmosphere?
Martian clouds are more than visual curiosities. They provide clues about where atmospheric water is moving and the conditions that allow ice to form. Modeling also indicates that clouds can change the atmosphere’s thermal structure and affect winds on a global scale. Their thin appearance does not mean they are climatically irrelevant. NASA’s modeling overview describes these atmospheric effects.
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