At 02:30:30 UTC Mastcam Left captured a nice cloud formation crowding the Martian sky!
Also for this Sol, this is not the only photo depicting a dense cloud formation (see https://mars.nasa.gov/msl/multimedia/raw-images/? order=sol+desc%2Cinstrument_sort+asc%2Csample_type_sort+asc%2C+date_taken+desc&per_page=50&page=0&mission=msl&begin_sol=3082&end_sol=3082&af=MAST_LEFT%7CMAST_RIGHT%2C%2C), confirming that the atmosphere contains an amount of water vapor far from the normally accepted values.
Mars is approaching its maximum distance from the Sun (aphelion), period in which the planet has a temperature on average 20°C lower than when it reaches its maximum proximity to the Sun (perihelion) (see https://www.ilpianetamarte.tk/Files/La_Temperatura_di_Marte/La_Temperatura_di_Marte.php).
It is therefore normal that all the water evaporated during the hottest period at perihelion tends to condense into clouds as aphelion approaches.
Mars is certainly drier than Earth, but clearly less arid than we think.
The original image is a black and white encoding of the Bayer mask that has been converted to color through a process called “debayering” or “demosaicing”. In addition, the photo has undergone noise reduction due to Jpeg compression, white balance and a slight increase in microcontrast and color saturation in order to make the colors more similar to what the human eye would see.
Original image: https://mars.nasa.gov/msl-raw-images/msss/03082/mcam/3082ML0160980011200744C00_DXXX.jpg
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