The atmosphere is very thin, exerting less than 1 percent of Earth’s atmospheric pressure at the surface. Surface pressures range over a factor of 15 because of the large altitude variations in Mars’s topography. Only small amounts of water are present in the atmosphere today.

Mars - Atmosphere, Structure, Composition: The vertical structure of the Martian atmosphere—that is, the relation of temperature and pressure to altitude—is determined partly by a complicated balance of several energy-transport mechanisms and partly by the way energy from the Sun is introduced into the atmosphere and lost by radiation to space.

Mars' atmosphere is over 100 times thinner than Earth's and is primarily composed of carbon dioxide, nitrogen and argon gases. Oxidized dust particles kicked up from the Martian surface fill the...

Mars once had a much thicker atmosphere that was mostly lost to space through the solar wind and the Sun’s ultraviolet radiation, which were much more intense in the early solar system. Methane has also been detected in Mars’s atmosphere.

Mars – the fourth planet from the Sun – is a dusty, cold, desert world with a very thin atmosphere. This dynamic planet has seasons, polar ice caps, extinct volcanoes, canyons and weather.

Mars has a thin atmosphere made up mostly of carbon dioxide, nitrogen, and argon gases. To our eyes, the sky would be hazy and red because of suspended dust instead of the familiar blue tint we see on Earth.

Spacecraft observations and climate modelling have revealed how atmospheric waves, dust storms and atmospheric loss processes are coupled throughout the atmosphere of Mars.

Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun – a dusty, cold, desert world with a very thin atmosphere. Mars is also a dynamic planet with seasons, polar ice caps, canyons, extinct volcanoes, and evidence that it was even more active in the past.

The InSight lander has expanded our knowledge of the atmosphere of Mars by observing various phenomena, including airglow, bores, infrasound and Earth-like turbulence.