Hi Tracers!

Recently I started working out a scenario for a semi-fictitious
extrasolar planetary system (based on private sci-fi fantasies tracing
back to my 70s childhood) in PoV-Ray... I started with its largest
planet, a gas giant orbiting 300 million kms from the star.

As an astronomy geek, I'm familiar with both Earth-based and spaceborne
images of our "gas giants", e. g. Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.
So I made a concept of a Jupiter-like atmosphere marked by multicolored
latitudonal cloud bands , alternating with transparent zones through
which deeper cloud layers are visible, with elliptical storm systems
also in different colors and sizes (such as the Great Red Spot or the
smaller, less long-lived white or brownish cyclones on Jupiter)
scattered over the planet, on top wispy white ammonia ice clouds (and
perhaps later also a thin shell of bluish media haze, such as the bright
atmospheric fringe seen from Earth orbit -> "Afghan Sunrise", September
2000).

The colors of the very first version of Tmirdlalg turned out to be way
too flashy, the latest Cassini image of Jupiter reminded me that the gas
giants' actual colors as they would be seen on site by an astronaut with
unaided eye are in fact much more subdued (our concept of the planets
may be spoiled by the countless NASA images in blazing computer-enhanced
colors...), so I reworked the texture layers, using now less saturated
(and partially brighter) colors.

But there still remain some problems with the cyclones, for which I used
a Leopard pattern: firstly, they are obviously not randomly distributed,
but in regular patterns (for example the four evenly spaced large pale
orange storm systems around the center of the planet's disk), and
secondly, with the Leopard pattern, I only could create concentric cloud
bandings within the cyclones, but not spiralling ones as it would be
natural. Further, I would like to have them in random colors (within
certain limits), without building dozens of texture layers each of them
with but one single cyclone.

Some months ago, I experimented with the black hole warp feature for the
first time, and I think that it would roughly meet my desires... but I
remember the features inside the warps being densely squeezed towards
the center, which again would not look like a real cyclone.

Is there a better way to do "Great Red Spots"?

See you in Khyberspace!

Yadgar

***
"Living on the dole ain't sexy!" (G. Leadman in "The Bus to Kabul")

Post a reply to this message

Attachments:
Download 'tmir0003.jpg' (82 KB)

Preview of image 'tmir0003.jpg'