RealAirglow

AI-assisted plugin. RealAirglow was written with an AI coding assistant under my direction. That covers the physics research, the reference model, the shader and the plugin. Every physical number traces to a cited source in docs/PHYSICS.md, and the shader is checked automatically against an independent Python reference model.

RealAirglow renders Earth's nightglow (airglow) from real physics:

• A thin green 557.7 nm layer near 97 km and a fainter red 630 nm layer near 250 km.
• OH, sodium, O₂ and continuum emission, with layer heights and widths from atmospheric chemistry.
• Correct geometry: bright limb bands from orbit, and brightening toward the horizon from the ground, dimmed by atmospheric extinction.
• Outshined by sunlight: full glow on the night side, fading smoothly through twilight, hidden on the day side.
• Clouds (EVE) hide the glow from below; from orbit the glow sits over them.

Requirements

• KSP 1.12.x on Windows (DirectX 11). macOS, Linux and OpenGL are not supported.
• A real-Earth planet pack with a body named Earth (RSS or Sol). Stock Kerbin gets no airglow.
• No other mods are needed. Tested with Sol, Scatterer, EVE volumetric clouds, TUFX and Parallax.

Use

Open the window with the toolbar button or Alt+G. - Master intensity: 0–300 %, default 1.5 %. 100 % matches a real ISS night photo. - Layer sliders: one per layer. The red line defaults to 500 %. - Presets and an Outshined by sunlight toggle. - Debug window: colour modes (camera, eye, science) and a per-layer readout in rayleighs.

Known limits

• No variability yet: no gravity waves, solar cycle or tides.
• No scattered airglow near the ground horizon.
• Not yet matched to Scatterer's or TUFX's tonemapping.

Licence

• Code: MIT.
• Data, config values, images and docs: CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. See LICENSE-DATA.md for sources (PALACE airglow data, CIE, camera sensitivity data from Jiang et al. 2013, NRLMSIS, TSIS-1 and others).

Source and issues: https://github.com/Beullig07/RealAirglow