Planet Glow of Atmosphere

Could planets have different glow effects based on what biomes are on the planet. An example would be desert planets would have more of a yellow or brown glow and lush planets would have a blue or green glow.

I would like to see this in the game because different planets have different atmospheres and some of them do not have any.

Let me know what you think and let Uber know what you think

»Desert
»Lush
»Metal
»Ice

Just to name a few

What kind of elements would cause different glows in the atmosphere? Iron may cause a reddish glow

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░░Ø░░ ← This is example of colorful atmosphere
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Realistically, the atmosphere would be the same color as a majority of the planet because of reflections in the air and blah blah blah whatever, yes, I approve of this glow.

Theoretically, if a planet has a atmosphere at all in the first place under our understanding of an atmosphere, it would likely be either oxygen or some other thick gas, like hydrogen or something. This would give every planet a blue-ish glow, provided the sun is similar to Sol.

But that's boring. I want a goddamned red aura for my doom fortress.

I know right it would be awesome! Doom Color

Nitrogen Earth's example of a stable atmospheric majority compound at around 78%. N2 is relatively inert. Oxygen is a terrible compound to have your atmosphere consist mainly of. It's very unstable... as is Hydrogen.

We have very little hydrogen in the atmosphere... about 0.000055% in fact.

Only Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune can be said to have a "majority" of its atmosphere be composed of Hydrogen... and that's because they're Gas Giants... and even then a lot of that Hydrogen is tied up in Ammonia based compounds.

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Also, the reason our atmosphere is blue has less to do with its composition, and more to do with the scattering effect that light undergoes within atmospheric conditions. The "Blue" wavelength, being shorter than most other wavelengths, is scattered more... and thus is the most prominent colour of our sky and also the reason we see the Sun as Yellow in colour.

This scattering effect changes as the angle of light coming from Sol changes as the Earth rotates and it is forced to travel through a greater section of the atmosphere. This is the reason we get Orange and Red sunsets.

But violet is scattered more than blue.

Did you have a point?
I'm assuming the question you're asking is; "Why isn't the sky purple then?" am I right?

You asserted that scattering is what makes the sky blue.

This is untrue.

I'm sorry... are you trying to insult the memory and scientific discoveries of Lord Rayleigh?

This is why the sky is blue

http://curious.astro.cornell.edu/questi ... number=688


And not violet, because based off your explanation the sky should be purple.

Ah, so you picked up the other reason the sky is "blue". I had the first one, and you knew about the second. I was actually waiting for someone to ask "So why isn't the sky Purple?" at which point I would have given the second reason.

Don't call me a liar. My explanation, though incomplete, is still entirely true.

True, but it neglects to mention a vital part.

This actually brings up a strange question, would robots see the Violet sky?

Depends on their photoreceptors.

And just because you weren't given the entire picture, doesn't make the person describing it a liar.
I in no way obfuscated, nor misled my audience.

Both of you fail to provide a reason though why the sky couldn't have any number of other colors on a different planet in another solar system though...

And on robot vision: i think this how the sky looks to a robot:



Also even if their receptors had the same sensitivity over the entire spectrum they would still see the sky as mostly blue as the suns emission maximum is in the blue region.

Yes we do. The colour of the sky depends on the density of its atmosphere, not necessarily the composition of its atmosphere, nor the colour of the planet in question.

The Denser the atmosphere, the more "Red" the sky would appear. A thin atmosphere would have no colour at all, except maybe at sunrise and sunset... at which point it would be Blue (or if you had non red-green-blue sensitive eyes like humans do and instead had purple as a prefered colour, Purple.)

Actually that only determines which part of the spectrum provided by the central stars black body radiation you can see. And to say that the color is not influenced by the atmospheres composition is untrue.

On earth there are no colored compounds in the atmosphere, that might not be true for other planets...

Having only the Earth and Sol as a point of reference does somewhat colour our point of view, wouldn't you say?

Notice, so far I have not said I am either for or against different coloured atmospheres.
I'm just relating some facts about our own sky.

So once again you haven't actually contributed anything to the conversation but took the opportunity of bragging about your scientific knowledge anyway

(Not entirely serious, if the wink smiley is not enough of a hint)

Nano why isnt the sky purple

just to humor you

So, what I've posted already; The spectrum of light emission from the sun is not constant at all wavelengths, and additionally is absorbed by the high atmosphere, so there is less Violet in the light we see on the surface of Earth.

Now what I didn't say at first; Our eyes are also less sensitive to violet. Not unable to, since we're still able to see Indigo and Violet in a rainbow... but...

We have three types of colour receptors in our retina. They are called red, blue and green cone receptors because they respond most strongly to light at those wavelengths. When you loom up at the sky your eyes take in all wavelenths of light. Because Red, Orange and Yellow are all minimally scattered in the sky we are less able to see them. They pass, mostly uninhibited to the ground. Green, Blue and Purple are scattered however. Blue light is scattered greatly, and purple even more so... but less of it has reached the ground as it is not only scattered, but absorbed slightly by the upper atmosphere. Green is also scattered (It's worth noting that if there were no indigo and violet in the spectrum, the sky would appear blue with a slight green tinge)

The practical upshot of all that is that the red and green cones are stimulated about equally by the light from the sky, while the blue is stimulated more strongly. This combination accounts for the usual, pale sky blue colour.

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And guzwaatensen, It's partially because I don't usually get the chance to talk about this kind of scale of Science. It's Flipping FASCINATING!