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Diamond dust is a ground-level cloud composed of tiny ice crystals. This meteorological phenomenon is also referred to simply as ice crystals and is reported in the METAR code as IC. Diamond dust generally forms under otherwise clear or nearly clear skies, so it is sometimes referred to as clear-sky precipitation.
Snowflake – Grows from a single ice crystal and may have agglomerated with other crystals as it falls. [17] Snow grain (also granular snow) – Flattened and elongated agglomerations of crystals, typically less than 1 mm diameter, that include a range of crystal sizes and complexities to include a rime core and glaze coating. They typically ...
A snowflake is a single ice crystal that is large enough to fall through the Earth's atmosphere as snow. [1] [2] [3] Snow appears white in color despite being made of clear ice. This is because the many small crystal facets of the snowflakes scatter the sunlight between them. [4]
Dendritic ice crystals imaged with a scanning electron microscope. The colors are computer generated. The aerospace industry is working to design a radar that can detect ice crystal environments to discern hazardous flight conditions. Ice crystals can melt when they touch the surface of warm aircraft, and refreeze due to environmental conditions.
Water vapor plays a role as it deposits ice crystals, known as hoar frost, during cold, still conditions. [54] During this transition, snow "is a highly porous, sintered material made up of a continuous ice structure and a continuously connected pore space, forming together the snow microstructure".
22° solar halo with very thin cirrostratus clouds. In folklore, moon rings are said to warn of approaching storms. [7] Like other ice halos, 22° halos appear when the sky is covered by thin cirrus or cirrostratus clouds that often come a few days before a large storm front. [8]
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It is composed of ice crystals or supercooled water droplets appearing as small unshaded round masses or flakes in groups or lines with ripples like sand on a beach. [45] [46] Cirrocumulus occasionally forms alongside cirrus and may be accompanied or replaced by cirrostratus clouds near the leading edge of an active weather system. This genus ...