# Atmosphere¶

A Structure closely tied to Body A variable of type Atmosphere usually is obtained by the :ATM suffix of a Body. ALL The following values are read-only. You can’t change the value of a body’s atmosphere.

structure Atmosphere
Suffix Type Description
BODY string Name of the celestial body
EXISTS boolean True if this body has an atmosphere
OXYGEN boolean True if oxygen is present
SCALE (DEPRECATED) scalar Used to find atmospheric density
SEALEVELPRESSURE scalar (atm) pressure at sea level
ALTITUDEPRESSURE(altitude) scalar (atm) pressure at the givel altitude
HEIGHT scalar (m) advertised atmospheric height
MOLARMASS scalar (kg/mol) The molecular mass of the atmosphere’s gas
ADIABATICINDEX scalar The Adiabatic index of the atmosphere’s gas
ADBIDX scalar Short alias for ADIABATICINDEX
ALTITUDETEMPERATURE(altitude) scalar Estimate of temperature at the given altitude.
ALTTEMP(altitude) scalar Short alias for ALTITUDETEMPERATURE
Atmosphere:BODY
Type: string Get only

The Body that this atmosphere is around - as a STRING NAME, not a Body object.

Atmosphere:EXISTS
Type: boolean Get only

True if this atmosphere is “real” and not just a dummy placeholder.

Atmosphere:OXYGEN
Type: boolean Get only

True if the air has oxygen and could therefore be used by a jet engine’s intake.

Atmosphere:SEALEVELPRESSURE
Type: scalar (atm) Get only

Pressure at the body’s sea level.

Result is returned in Atmospheres. 1.0 Atmosphere = same as Kerbin or Earth. If you prefer to see the answer in KiloPascals, multiply the answer by Constant:AtmToKPa.

Warning

Changed in version 1.1.0: Previous versions returned this value in KiloPascals by mistake, which has now been changed to Atmospheres.

Atmosphere:ALTITUDEPRESSURE(altitude)
Parameters: altitude – The altitude above sea level (in meters) you want to know the pressure for. scalar (atm)

Number of Atm’s of atmospheric pressure at the given altitude. If you pass in zero, you should get the sea level pressure. If you pass in 10000, you get the pressure at altitude=10,000m. This will return zero if the body has no atmosphere, or if the altitude you pass in is above the max atmosphere altitude for the body.

Result is returned in Atmospheres. 1.0 Atmosphere = same as Kerbin or Earth. If you prefer to see the answer in KiloPascals, multiply the answer by Constant:AtmToKPa.

Atmosphere:HEIGHT
Type: scalar (m) Get only

The altitude at which the atmosphere is “officially” advertised as ending. (actual ending value differs, see below).

Atmosphere:MOLARMASS
Type: scalar Get only

The Molecular Mass of the gas the atmosphere is composed of. Units are in kg/mol. Wikipedia Molar Mass Explanation.

Atmosphere:ADIABATICINDEX
Type: scalar Get only

The Adiabatic index of the gas the atmosphere is composed of. Wikipedia Adiabatic Index Explanation.

Atmosphere:ADBIDX
Type: scalar Get only

Atmosphere:ALTITUDETEMPERATURE(altitude)
Parameter: altitude (scalar) the altitude to query temperature at. Get only

Returns an approximate atmosphere temperature on this world at the given altitude. Note that this is only approximate because the temperature will vary depending on the sun position in the sky (i.e. your latitude and what time of day it is).

Atmosphere:ALTTEMP(altitude)

A shorthand alias for :meth:ALTITUDETEMPERATURE(altitude).

## Deprecated Suffix¶

Atmosphere:SCALE
Type: scalar Get only

A math constant plugged into a formula to find atmosphere density.

Note

Deprecated since version 0.17.2: Removed to account for significant changes to planetary atmosphere mechanics introduced in KSP 1.0