English

Identification of a Novel "Fishbone" Structure in the Dendritic Growth of Columnar Ice Crystals

Materials Science 2009-12-15 v1

Abstract

Ice crystals growing in highly supersaturated air at temperatures near -5 C exhibit a distinctive, nonplanar dendritic morphology that has not been previously documented or explained. We examine this structure and identify its most prominent features in relation to the ice crystal lattice. Developing a full 3D numerical model that reproduces this robust morphology will be an interesting challenge in understanding diffusion-limited crystal growth in the presence of highly anisotropic surface attachment kinetics.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.0912.2522,
  title  = {Identification of a Novel "Fishbone" Structure in the Dendritic Growth of Columnar Ice Crystals},
  author = {Kenneth G. Libbrecht},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0912.2522},
  year   = {2009}
}