Snowflakes
Posted: Fri Apr 12, 2013 8:48 am
Researchers from a University of Utah and National Science Foundation project have developed a camera system that captures flakes as they fall from the sky. By grabbing a series of images of the tumbling crystals—its exposure time is one-40,000th of a second, compared with about one-200th in normal photography—the camera is revealing the true shape and diversity of snowflakes.
These are not the nice symmetrical flakes we are used to seeing. For example many flakes are attacked by millions of freezing water droplets and end up as rough little ice pellets known as graupel. Flakes that avoid that process often end up sticking to other flakes, forming big, fluffy aggregates in midflight. Weird, wonderful and beautiful!
These are not the nice symmetrical flakes we are used to seeing. For example many flakes are attacked by millions of freezing water droplets and end up as rough little ice pellets known as graupel. Flakes that avoid that process often end up sticking to other flakes, forming big, fluffy aggregates in midflight. Weird, wonderful and beautiful!
