Mitsuba 3 NASA Planetary Spectrum Generator Sun–Sky Rendering

Mitsuba 3 is a research-oriented rendering system for forward and inverse light-transport simulation, developed at EPFL. NASA’s Planetary Spectrum Generator (PSG) is radiative transfer suite developed at NASA Goddard. This research documents the development and output of a custom sunsky plugin capable of utilising NASA PSG simulated spectral radiances, to render radiometrically accurate scenes under terrestrial and extraterrestrial atmospheres. Below shows a subset of renders produced with the model using llvm_ad_spectral and cuda_ad_spectral variants.

Visual Static Renders

Interior clear sky scene rendered with a custom Earth sun and sky model.

Earth — Clear Sky

Earth — Clear sky visual sRGB render from spectral simulation using NASA PSG direct solar disc and hemispherical sky dome radiances.

Interior scene rendered with a custom Earth sun and sky model and M2T3NVCLD QL profiles.

Earth — Overcast Sky

Earth — Overcast sky rendered with an Earth atmosphere MERRA2 and M2T3NVCLD QL profiles.

Interior scene rendered with a custom Earth sun and sky model and M2I3NVAER DU001-DU005 profiles.

Earth — Dust Storm Sky

Earth — Dust storm sky scene rendered with an Earth atmosphere MERRA2 profile and M2I3NVAER DU001-DU005 profiles dust storm in Saudi Arabia on 24/05/2024.

Mars — Partially Terraformed

Mars — Partially terraformed Mars scene rendered using a custom MCD v5.3 atmosphere, cirrus ice clouds, lakes, and DTM ESP_061075_2195: Candidate landing site for SpaceX Starship in Arcadia region.

Scene rendered with Titan sun and sky model, Teanby et al. 2006.

Titan — Haze Sky

Titan — Haze sky visual sRGB render from spectral simulation using NASA PSG direct solar disc and hemispherical sky dome radiances.

Lunar scene rendered using 2000 ASTM Standard Extraterrestrial Spectrum Reference E-490, Shackleton DTM with relab_highland_lr_cmp_038_bkr1lr038.

Moon — Shackleton Crater, Lunar South Pole

Moon — Lunar scene rendered using 2000 ASTM Standard Extraterrestrial Spectrum Reference E-490, Shackleton DTM with relab_highland_lr_cmp_038_bkr1lr038.

Mars — Arcadia

Mars — Mars at sunset rendered using a custom MCD v5.3 atmosphere, cirrus ice clouds, lakes, and DTM ESP_061075_2195: Candidate landing site for SpaceX Starship in Arcadia region.

Scene rendered with Ehrenreich et al. (2012) sky model.

Venus — Sky

Venus — Venus atmosphere from Ehrenreich et al. (2012), sRGB render from spectral simulation using NASA PSG direct solar disc and hemispherical sky dome radiances.

Earth Arctic Dusk — Sky

Earth — Clear dusk sky rendered with an Earth atmosphere MERRA2 and M2T3NVCLD QI profile on Svalbard.

Multispectral Rendering

Wavelength-resolved rendering showing how scene appearance changes across 380-780nm under clear-sky and overcast illumination in 10nm bands.

Earth — Clear Sky Multispectral Sweep

Wavelength-resolved spectral render sweep from 380nm to 780nm in 10nm integrated bands of a clear-sky Earth scene spectral radiance using the custom Mitsuba 3 Sun–Sky model driven by NASA PSG simulations.

Earth — Overcast Sky Multispectral Sweep

Wavelength-resolved spectral render sweep from 380nm to 780nm in 10nm integrated bands of the overcast Earth scene spectral radiance using the custom Mitsuba 3 Sun–Sky model driven by NASA PSG simulations.

Moon — Shackleton Crater, Lunar South Pole

Wavelength-resolved spectral render sweep from 360nm (UV) to 1000nm (NIR) in 10nm integrated bands, scene spectral radiance using the custom Mitsuba 3 Sun–Sky model. Solar disc using 2000 ASTM Standard Extraterrestrial Spectrum Reference E-490-00.