Make your own Atmospheres for KSP (automatically)

[Pretorian28715]

On ‎07‎/‎04‎/‎2017 at 9:08 AM, The White Guardian said:

Just a note for everyone: in the spreadsheet '1360' is defined as the 'solar constant' by default. However, this value is for G-class stars.

For other star classes you can use these values:
O 40800000
B 6800000
A 23120
F 4080
G 1360
K 408
M 108.8

Hi, are these at 1AU?

[The White Guardian]

18 minutes ago, Pretorian28715 said:

Hi, are these at 1AU?

yes.

[OhioBob]

@Pretorian28715, if you use my supplemental spreadsheet, it includes a means to determine star type from solar constant and distance.  Just enter the solar constant in cell C4 and the distance cell C5.  From the entered values it will calculate the star's luminosity in cell C10.  The spreadsheet then references a table of main sequence stars and returns the star type that matches the luminosity.  This star type is given in cell C18.

Alternatively, if you have your mind set on a particular type of star, you can adjust the numbers in cells C4 and C5 until you get the type of star you want.  This way you can determine how far away from a particular type of star you must be to get the desired solar constant.
 

Edited May 26, 2017 by OhioBob

[EricL]

On 5/16/2017 at 2:29 PM, OhioBob said:

Here's another spreadsheet that I've made to supplement the first:

temperatureCurve and temperatureSunMultCurve calculator

It produces temperature curves that can be copied and pasted into the spreadsheet KSPatmospheres.xlsx.  Curves can be produced for four types of atmospheres:  Star, Gas Giant, Earthlike, and Other.  The curves are only a suggestion, you are of course free to use whatever you like.  Most of the data entered into this spreadsheet is as described in the previously provided instructions.  The two spreadsheets are made to be used together, so whatever properties you enter into one should be duplicated in the other.

This spreadsheet also provides some suggested properties.  For stars, the suggested radius and surface gravity are computed on the basis of luminosity, presuming a main sequence star.  The suggested surface gravity for other bodies is based on real life bodies of similar type found in our own solar system.  While you are certainly under no obligation to use the suggestion, deviating from it too far may result in a body having an unrealistic density.  The suggested greenhouse effect it little more than a guesstimate, using an empirical formula based on a very small sample size.  The actual greenhouse effect could vary considerably.

For "other" atmospheres it is necessary to estimate the body's mean surface elevation (cell R20), which is required to compute the temperature at the datum.  If your body is a moon orbiting in the strong magnetosphere of a gas giant, then select "Y" (yes) in cell R21, else "N" (no).  The presence of a strong magnetosphere increases the exospheric temperature.

These curves likely extend well beyond what is required.  It is recommended that you trim off the unneeded elevations when finalizing the atmospheric model.

For this spreadsheet to work, interation must be enabled.
 

Just what I needed! Thank you! 

[DeltaDizzy]

How do I find the Albedo of a Planet?

[OhioBob]

17 hours ago, DeltaDizzy said:

How do I find the Albedo of a Planet?

Depends on what you mean.  Are you creating a new planet and want to give it an albedo?  Or are you trying to find the albedo of an already existing planet?

If the latter, and the planet creator has given it an albedo, you should be able to find it in the planet cfg file.  If there's no albedo parameter given, then KSP will use the albedo of the template.

If you mean the former, then there are several things you can do.  First, you can just make it up.  Pick a number that's representative of the type of body you've created.  For instance, if it's a Mars like body, then go look up Mars' albedo and use a similar number.  If you've created an icy outer solar system body, then look up the albedos of similar real life bodies and use something comparable.

Another thing you can do it estimate your albedo based on how dark or light the texture is.  I did this in for GPP in which I loaded up each planet texture in Photoshop and used a histogram to measure the relative luminosities.  I then gave the brightest ones high albedos and the darkest ones low albedos.

On the other hand, if you actually know something about the planet's temperature and how much sunlight it receives, you can calculate the planet's albedo.  I demonstrate a method for doing that here.  Scroll down to the heading "Developing a Temperature Model", sub-heading "Global Mean Temperature".
 

Edited September 5, 2017 by OhioBob

[adsii1970]

7 hours ago, OhioBob said:

 I demonstrate a method for doing that here.  Scroll down to the heading "Developing a Temperature Model", sub-heading "Global Mean Temperature".

[Edited by adsii1970]

...and adding another bookmark to my list. Oh, yeah... finding the how-to on-line... one topic at a time...!

[Planetace]

Still sticking with KillAshley's atmosphere generator for now...

[OhioBob]

On ‎9‎/‎7‎/‎2017 at 4:54 AM, Galacticvoyager said:

Still sticking with KillAshley's atmosphere generator for now...

I've never seen it, though I've heard about it.  Until I started doing atmospheres, all the mods I saw included only three atmosphere curves:

     temperatureCurve
     temperatureSunMultCurve
     pressureCurve

I assume all the mods looked the same because they were all using the same source, i.e. KillAshley's atmosphere generator.  While having those three curves is certainly important, it's also incomplete.  At a minimum, an atmosphere should also include:

     temperatureLatitudeBiasCurve
     temperatureLatitudeSunMultCurve

The latter curves determines how temperature varies with latitude and time of day.  Omitting these curves means that those of the template are used instead.  The temperature variations of the template may be entirely inappropriate for the planet you're trying to create, which means you might not be getting the atmosphere you think you are.

I'm not telling you not to use KillAshley's atmosphere generator of anybody else's.  I'm just warning that all five of these curves should be included in your atmosphere cfg.

(There are actually three additional curves, but only the five listed above are used by the stock atmospheres.)

[Clonos]

Thank goodness, i was looking for this for ages! Really, great job OhioBob!

[Gyrfalcon5]

@OhioBob Small question: What exactly does the Latitudinal range, 0-90°, nighttime part of the excel document mean exactly? Sorry I ever tagged you. I found it.

Edited November 13, 2017 by Gyrfalcon5
Idiocy

[OhioBob]

1 minute ago, Gyrfalcon5 said:

@OhioBob Small question: What exactly does the Latitudinal range, 0-90°, nighttime part of the excel document mean exactly?

That is the temperature difference between the planet's equator and its poles, measured during the coldest time of the night.

[OhioBob]

My atmosphere creation tools are now available as interactive online tools that you can access and use through your web browser.  There's no longer a need to download the spreadsheets or have Excel installed on your computer.  You can find the web page links in the opening post.

Edit...  The online versions are no longer available.

 

Edited April 13, 2020 by OhioBob

[Gordon Dry]

Has this been used for RSS?

If no, did anybody use this for RSS and would like to share the results?

[OhioBob]

1 hour ago, Gordon Dry said:

Has this been used for RSS?

If no, did anybody use this for RSS and would like to share the results?

I don't know the current status of RSS because I haven't been involved in it for a couple years.  But back in 2016 I created the atmospheres for RSS.  These particular spreadsheets weren't used because they didn't exist yet, but the method was essentially the same.

[Andi K.]

@OhioBob For some reason I'm having trouble copying and pasting data to and from the spreadsheets. It's weird, because I've used those spreadsheets before and never had that problem.

[OhioBob]

1 hour ago, AndrewDrawsPrettyPictures said:

@OhioBob For some reason I'm having trouble copying and pasting data to and from the spreadsheets. It's weird, because I've used those spreadsheets before and never had that problem.

I can't get it to work either.  I might have to have @Galileo look at it.  He's the one who set up the webpage.  In the meantime, have you tried using the downloadable spreadsheets rather than the online ones?  I think they're working.

[Andi K.]

9 minutes ago, OhioBob said:

I can't get it to work either.  I might have to have @Galileo look at it.  He's the one who set up the webpage.  In the meantime, have you tried using the downloadable spreadsheets rather than the online ones?  I think they're working.

I don't have Excel, so I tried importing the downloadable spreadsheet into Google sheets, but it was showing a bunch of divide by zero errors on a bunch of the cells for the tempcurve spreadsheet. Don't know what's up with Google sheets lol.

[Andi K.]

On ‎10‎/‎9‎/‎2018 at 8:10 PM, OhioBob said:

I can't get it to work either.  I might have to have @Galileo look at it.  He's the one who set up the webpage.  In the meantime, have you tried using the downloadable spreadsheets rather than the online ones?  I think they're working.

Hey, me again. Copy and pasting started working again, but now the links to the webpage for the calculators do not work.

[OhioBob]

16 hours ago, AndrewDrawsPrettyPictures said:

Hey, me again. Copy and pasting started working again, but now the links to the webpage for the calculators do not work.

It appears the entire domain is down.  There's nothing I can do about that, the domain is owned by @Galileo.  He has been notified.

[Andi K.]

1 hour ago, OhioBob said:

It appears the entire domain is down.  There's nothing I can do about that, the domain is owned by @Galileo.  He has been notified.

Thanks

[Autolyzed Yeast Extract]

I can't copy anything from or paste anything into the atmosphere curves sheet because the sheet is protected or something, it's forcing me to enter everything manually

edit: i redownloaded a new sheet. if you use these, prepare to constantly start over, as they're finnicky

Edited October 7, 2020 by Autolyzed Yeast Extract

[ffx]

Ohino bob, how to exten the temperature curve and the temperature Sun Multi curve

Edited November 26, 2020 by ffx

[ffx]

Hello

[ffx]

why not asering me