Join the hunt for clouds high up in the Martian atmosphere

Cloud gazing isn’t only an Earthly pastime. You can help planetary scientists by cloud spotting on Mars, finds Layal Liverpool

By Layal Liverpool

I AM on the lookout for clouds this month. I won’t be searching here on Earth, though – that would be too easy. Instead, I am helping researchers spot clouds in the skies above our neighbouring planet Mars. You can join in this effort too, from anywhere in the world, by participating in the Cloudspotting on Mars project.

This initiative is calling for volunteers to find clouds high up in the Martian atmosphere by searching through years of data from NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. This spacecraft observes the Martian horizon with an instrument called the Mars Climate Sounder, which detects …