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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.
Ice nucleation mechanisms describe four modes that are responsible for the formation of primary ice crystals in the atmosphere. [clarification needed]An ice nucleus, also known as an ice nucleating particle (INP), is a particle which acts as the nucleus for the formation of an ice crystal in the atmosphere.
Crystal structure of Ice XI viewed along the c-axis Crystal structure of ice XI (c-axis in the vertical direction) Ice XI is the hydrogen-ordered form of the ordinary form of ice. The total internal energy of ice XI is about one sixth lower than ice I h, so in principle it should naturally form when ice I h is cooled to below 72 K.
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]
Precipitation occurs when evapotranspiration takes place and local air becomes saturated with water vapor, and so can no longer maintain the level of water vapor in gaseous form, which creates clouds. This occurs when less dense moist air cools, usually when an air mass rises through the atmosphere to higher and cooler altitudes.
The water vapor will attempt to return to equilibrium, so the extra water vapor will condense into ice on the surface of the particle. These ice particles end up as the nuclei of larger ice crystals. This process only happens at temperatures between 0 °C (32 °F) and −40 °C (−40 °F).
Because water droplets are so much more numerous than the ice crystals, the crystals are able to grow to hundreds of micrometers or millimeters in size at the expense of the water droplets by the Wegener–Bergeron–Findeisen process. These large crystals are an efficient source of precipitation, since they fall through the atmosphere due to ...
This is an accepted version of this page This is the latest accepted revision, reviewed on 30 January 2025. Visible mass of liquid droplets or frozen crystals suspended in the atmosphere "Nephology" redirects here. Not to be confused with Nephrology. For other uses, see Cloud (disambiguation). Cloudscape over Borneo, taken by the International Space Station Part of a series on Weather ...