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Earth clouds can contain liquid-water droplets, ice crystals, or both. The Martian clouds observed by spacecraft are made of water ice or carbon-dioxide ice. Mars has an atmosphere that is more than 95% carbon dioxide (NASA, 2025), with pressures and temperatures far below Earth’s. Those conditions suppress familiar liquid-water clouds and allow clouds to form only when water or CO₂ reaches a solid-forming state.
That phase difference controls how clouds form, where they appear, what they look like, and how they influence climate. Martian water-ice clouds often resemble very thin cirrus visually, while CO₂-ice clouds have no ordinary terrestrial weather equivalent.
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The basic difference: liquid water is possible on Earth, but observed Martian clouds are ice
Clouds are collections of condensed particles suspended in an atmosphere. On Earth, the condensed material can be liquid water droplets, ice crystals, or a mixture of the two. The atmosphere commonly supports water in its liquid phase, so a terrestrial cloud does not have to be entirely frozen.
On Mars, NASA’s observations describe two established cloud condensates: water ice and carbon-dioxide ice. The planet’s atmosphere is more than 95% carbon dioxide, but that gas remains a cloud only when temperatures fall low enough for CO₂ to freeze. Water transported through the Martian atmosphere likewise forms clouds as ice rather than as the liquid droplets familiar in many Earth clouds.
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| Feature | Earth | Mars |
|---|---|---|
| Known cloud material | Liquid-water droplets, ice crystals, or both | Water ice or carbon-dioxide ice |
| Dominant atmospheric gas | Not specified in the cited Mars-focused studies | More than 95% carbon dioxide (NASA, 2025) |
| Useful visual comparison | Earth’s cirrus is a visual analogy for thin ice clouds | Many water-ice clouds look cirrus-like but are thinner; CO₂ clouds are a different class |
| Cloud-forming trigger emphasized by the evidence | Atmospheric conditions that allow water to condense as liquid, ice, or both | Dust-seeded water-ice nucleation or exceptional cooling that freezes CO₂ |
| Direct global cloud-cover comparison | Not established in the cited material | Not established in the cited material |
The comparison is therefore about phase and atmospheric environment, not simply about whether one planet has “more clouds.” The available observations do not provide a directly comparable global percentage of cloud cover, average cloud lifetime, or total cloud mass for both worlds.
Why Earth can make liquid-water clouds
Earth’s cloud systems operate in an atmosphere where water can remain liquid over a broad range of ordinary weather conditions. Cooling moist air can therefore produce suspended liquid droplets; colder regions can contain ice crystals, and many clouds contain both phases at different heights or times.
This mixed-phase possibility is the key contrast with the Martian clouds discussed here. Saying that Earth clouds can be liquid does not mean every terrestrial cloud is liquid, and saying that Martian clouds are icy does not mean every cloud on Mars follows one identical pathway. Earth’s cloud composition changes with altitude, temperature, moisture, and local weather. Mars has analogous changes in location and season, but its much colder, thinner atmosphere restricts the stable condensates that observations have identified.
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One free scan finds every outdated or missing driver and matches the right update for your exact hardware.Free scan · exact hardware matchHow water-ice clouds form on Mars
Dust particles provide nucleation sites
NASA’s Mars cloud-microphysics description says airborne dust particles can act as nuclei for water-ice droplets or crystals. When temperature, pressure, and water vapor reach conditions favorable for nucleation and condensation, water begins forming ice on or around those suspended particles.
Dust is not presented as the only conceivable nucleation process under every Martian condition. It is the mechanism represented in the cited Mars models and observations. Those models track several linked processes rather than treating a cloud as a static patch: surface-water sublimation, cloud nucleation, particle growth, atmospheric transport, and gravitational sedimentation.
The Martian water cycle supplies the vapor
The north residual water-ice cap is identified by NASA as the main current atmospheric water source. During northern summer, seasonal carbon-dioxide sublimation exposes that water-ice reservoir. Water then moves through the atmosphere and eventually returns as frost or snow. Some of the transported vapor becomes cloud ice when the air reaches the required thermodynamic state.
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Because Mars is dry and its atmosphere is thin, the amount of water available to make clouds is small compared with Earth’s atmospheric water cycle. A Martian water-ice cloud can therefore be optically thin even when it covers a broad region. “Thin” describes its optical and radiative properties; it does not mean the particles are absent or scientifically unimportant.
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Once ice particles nucleate, they can grow, move with atmospheric circulation, and fall under Mars’ gravity. NASA’s model framework includes gravitational sedimentation, so Martian cloud particles are not expected to remain suspended indefinitely. Sublimation can remove them when they enter warmer or drier air, while continued cooling or vapor supply can support growth.
This balance helps explain why Mars clouds are transient and strongly patterned by season, latitude, dust activity, water transport, and topography. A cloud observed at one altitude or location does not establish that the same process operates everywhere on the planet.
How carbon-dioxide clouds form on Mars
CO₂ must freeze, not merely condense as liquid
Carbon dioxide dominates Mars’ atmosphere, but Martian CO₂ clouds form only where the gas becomes cold enough to freeze. Under the low-pressure conditions of Mars, the relevant cloud particles are solid CO₂ crystals. They are sometimes described as “flakes of Martian air,” because the atmospheric gas itself has frozen.
This requirement makes CO₂ clouds fundamentally different from ordinary terrestrial water clouds. A visual comparison with cirrus can help for thin water-ice clouds, but it should not be extended to CO₂ clouds: Earth has no routine weather counterpart in which the main atmospheric gas freezes into suspended cloud particles.
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NASA-authored research describes thermal tides and gravity waves as cooling processes that can push already cold Martian air below the CO₂ freezing point. These waves and tides change temperature locally and vertically, creating narrow opportunities for CO₂ ice to form.
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The mechanism is not settled for every observed cloud. Atmospheric scientist Mark Lemmon explained in a NASA 2025 Curiosity feature: “Carbon dioxide was not expected to be condensing into ice here, so something is cooling it to the point that it could happen. But Martian gravity waves are not fully understood and we’re not entirely sure what is causing twilight clouds to form in one place but not another.” The quotation captures the distinction between a plausible cooling mechanism and a complete explanation of every regional cloud observation.
Where and when Martian clouds appear
The recurring aphelion cloud belt
A 2023 peer-reviewed study by Khayat and colleagues analyzed atmospheric observations from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter’s Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars (MRO/CRISM) across five Mars years, approximately ten Earth years. It found a recurring aphelion cloud belt between about 10° south and 30° north, strongest around northern spring and summer.
The study also reported northern and southern polar hoods with different seasonal appearances. Cloud patterns recurred from one Mars year to the next, while optical depth was especially high over major volcanoes and Hellas Basin. These are climatological patterns from a defined observation span, not a claim that every Martian cloud forms in those places.
Perseverance observations near northern summer solstice
NASA’s Perseverance team describes cloud activity roughly between 10° south and 30° north around northern summer solstice, consistent with the broader belt identified in the MRO/CRISM record. From Jezero crater, rover cameras and weather instruments monitor cloud timing, shape, particle sizes, radiation, and thermal emission.
Those observations also show why cloud altitude matters at the surface. Clouds near sunset can emit thermal radiation downward and slow the surface’s nighttime cooling. A tenuous cloud can therefore influence local temperatures even when it does not produce rain-like weather.
Curiosity’s high-altitude twilight clouds
NASA reported in 2025 that Curiosity observed iridescent CO₂ clouds around 60–80 kilometers altitude, with wispy material extending lower before evaporating as temperatures rose. Water-ice clouds were also observed around 50 kilometers. At Curiosity’s location, the activity appeared in early southern fall.
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A NASA-hosted 2024 study likewise described high-altitude water and CO₂ clouds, interpreting Curiosity images as evidence of likely CO₂ ice at 50–80 kilometers and lower wave-like clouds that may be water ice. Iridescence indicates a relatively narrow particle-size distribution and is consistent with cloud-particle growth.
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Curiosity has seen these twilight CO₂ clouds at Gale crater, while Perseverance has not observed the same phenomenon at Jezero. Regional atmospheric dynamics and gravity waves are possible explanations, but the reason for the geographic difference remains unresolved.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Can it snow or rain on Mars?
Mars can receive ice precipitation, but the evidence does not describe Earth-like liquid rain. NASA’s Phoenix lander observed falling water-ice snow in northern Mars in 2008. NASA’s Mars Climate Sounder observations from southern winter in 2006–2007 detected CO₂ ice clouds over the south pole, including a feature about 500 kilometers across and smaller clouds at roughly 70°–80° south. The observations were interpreted as evidence that CO₂ snowfall accumulated at the surface.
Paul Hayne, lead author of the NASA/JPL snow report, said: “We firmly establish the clouds are composed of carbon dioxide — flakes of Martian air — and they are thick enough to result in snowfall accumulation at the surface.” In practical terms, “snow” on Mars means falling solid particles: water ice in one case and frozen carbon dioxide in another. It should not be used loosely to imply liquid precipitation.
Why thin Martian clouds still affect climate
Radiative heating and cooling
NASA states that Martian cloud radiative effects alter atmospheric heating and cooling. Ice particles absorb, emit, and scatter radiation differently depending on their altitude, location, composition, and optical properties. A cloud’s net effect can therefore vary: one cloud layer may warm air below or reduce nighttime cooling, while another may contribute to cooling elsewhere.
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Modeling indicates that Martian clouds can change the atmosphere’s thermal structure and wind systems. Because temperature differences drive circulation, even optically thin cloud layers can feed back on regional and seasonal atmospheric motions.
Water movement
Clouds also participate in transporting water. Water vapor rises from surface reservoirs, nucleates into ice, moves with the atmosphere, and eventually sediments or sublimates. NASA modeling links cloud processes to the movement of water through the Martian atmosphere, so clouds are part of the planet’s active water cycle rather than merely visual features.
The exact size of each effect depends on cloud altitude, geographic setting, particle properties, and season. The cited evidence supports climate relevance, but it does not provide one universal warming or cooling number that can be applied to every Martian cloud.
What the Earth–Mars comparison can and cannot establish
The strongest conclusion is compositional: Earth permits liquid-water clouds, whereas the observed Martian clouds discussed by NASA are water ice or CO₂ ice. The next conclusion is mechanistic: Martian water-ice clouds can nucleate on airborne dust, while CO₂ clouds require exceptional cold, potentially supplied by thermal tides or gravity waves.
The comparison becomes less certain when it is expressed as a single global statistic. The cited material does not provide matched measurements of total cloud cover, cloud lifetime, average optical depth, or global precipitation for both planets. Nor does it present a complete microphysical inventory of every terrestrial cloud regime. Those quantities should not be inferred from the Mars observations.
| Question | What the evidence supports | What remains open or not directly compared |
|---|---|---|
| What are Mars clouds made of? | Water ice or CO₂ ice | The relative global share of each condensate is not stated |
| How do Martian water clouds start? | Water vapor can nucleate and condense on airborne dust when conditions are favorable | Dust is not established as the sole nucleation pathway in every situation |
| How do CO₂ clouds start? | Air must cool below the CO₂ freezing point; tides and gravity waves are candidate cooling processes | The cause of every local or twilight cloud is not settled |
| Where do they occur? | Recurring aphelion belt, polar hoods, volcanoes, Hellas Basin, and selected high-altitude locations | No single location explains all cloud populations |
| How do they affect climate? | They modify radiative heating and cooling, thermal structure, winds, and water transport | No universal global forcing value is supplied |
Bottom line for reading Martian cloud images
When a Martian image resembles a thin Earth cirrus cloud, the resemblance is mainly visual. The particles are generally water ice, and they form in a colder, thinner atmosphere where airborne dust, seasonal water transport, and local temperature changes control nucleation and growth. When the cloud is made of CO₂ ice, the difference is more profound: the atmosphere’s dominant gas has frozen into crystals, often at high altitude after gravity waves or thermal tides create the required cooling.
Earth clouds can include liquid droplets; observed Mars clouds are icy. Mars can produce water-ice snow and CO₂ snowfall, but not the liquid rain implied by ordinary terrestrial weather. Their thinness does not make them irrelevant: Martian clouds influence radiation, atmospheric circulation, and the movement of water, with effects that depend on where, when, and at what altitude the cloud forms.
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