Near-Perfect Color Calibration Confirmed

NASA's own published calibration chart confirms that Mars' lighting is identical to ours

    With the availability of a NASA color reference chart, we can now show that the sunlight reaching the ground on Mars is in all respects virtually identical to the sunlight that reaches the ground on Earth.  The only difference is that on Mars, the light is less intense due to its greater distance from the Sun.  Why is this agreement in light color important?

    Because now we can see that the same methods of assembling the color images and balancing the color will work for Mars and the images that the two rovers have returned.  Both Spirit and Opportunity have sent back many images that feature the MarsDial and its color reference chips.  Using a straight 1:1:1 assembly ratio for the L4, L5, and L6 filters should create the best and most accurate color that can be had from the image data NASA has.

    Here is the calibration chart and you can see that the curves are so close as to be identical. Since Mars' atmosphere is thinner, a slightly greater amount of light can penetrate it, and that is why the markers that make up Mars' spectral data are slightly above the terrestrial curve.

What it means for color images

    If we take an image from Sol 001 Opportunity that contains the MarsDial, we can assemble it and see how close the image colors come to the calibration standard above.  This image is made from the L4, L5, and L6 image data and the colors are crisp and clear.  Most important is the fact that they match the calibration standard, which means that this is a true color image.  (The image has been rotated to lay on its side.)

    Now that the color has been verified, we can see the airbags from the landing system are white, and the ground is a dark brown with dark gray spherules.   This is indeed true color and if you were on Mars, this is what you would see with your own eyes.   But now we have to look at something that is at odds with this image- NASA has published its own images of the airbags and the rover hardware, but they look very different.   Let's look at those images and see what they have to show us.

The left image shows the airbags as being red-orange.   This is the official NASA/JPL image that was released on their site. So why do the airbags look orange?    The right image is quite different.  I color balanced the far image using the fluorescent lighting and the toolbox as my standards. Now the airbags look like the ones in the Mars image- white as the true color shows.
This pair of images shows the landing stage as it would appear unfolded.  But once again the official images show a red-orange cast that is conspicuously absent from the true color images returned from Mars. Keep in mind that the color of these official NASA images is directly contradicted by the calibration data from NASA.
Now let's compare these images showing the landing stage with the real images from Mars. This calibration image is from Opportunity, Sol 010. The color is pure and crisp, the illumination and balance is excellent, and the landing stage is in the best position to be compared to the MarsDial. What do we see?    Instead of the orange fabric shown in the above pictures, the MarsDial proves that the fabric is white!  What about other images of the Vectran landing bags on Earth?
I decided to locate images of the airbags that showed them in their proper color and in settings that could easily be compared to known surroundings.  This link shows the airbags early in the testing phase.    The most important aspect of the images is that the bags are indeed white.   There is no hint of orange or red and there is a person standing on the ladder to the left in this image, which provides us with a simple test of the trueness of this image.

    The greatest issue here is that the images we have been shown from NASA are proven to be altered- they have been made red-orange, a process that has been performed to all three of the images shown above- this is not an accident, but a deliberate act.

    In the same manner, the images of Mars' sky has been consistently turned red, pink, orange, or brown. But in the face of the calibration data, we can see that the sky cannot be this murky color, for the following reasons:

    First, the lighting on Mars is the same color as the lighting on Earth as proven by NASA's own calibration curves. The rover's instruments verify this very clearly.

    Second, the sky cannot be filtering out the blue light because the solar panels require blue light to generate power. The fact that they are working very well proves that plenty of blue light is reaching the ground.

    Third, the sharp shadows around the rocks and features on the ground prove that the sky cannot be murky. If it were like a fog or haze of any significance, the shadows would be blurred and soft, and no bright reflections could occur on the metal objects that are sometimes in the field of view.

    Fourth, we can see the distant mountains and hills in many of the images, proving that the visibility must be excellent. This proves that the clarity of the atmosphere is excellent.

DONE