Related papers: Snow metamorphism: a fractal approach
The microstructure of snow determines its fundamental properties such as the mechanical strength, reflectivity, or the thermo-hydraulic properties. Snow undergoes continuous microstructural changes due to local gradients in temperature,…
This monograph reviews our current understanding of the physical dynamics of ice crystal growth, focusing on the spontaneous formation of complex structures from water vapor (called snow crystals) as a function of temperature,…
We describe a comprehensive model for the formation and morphological development of atmospheric ice crystals growing from water vapor, also known as snow crystals. Our model derives in part from empirical measurements of the intrinsic ice…
Sublimation of drifting snow, which is significant for the balances of mass and energy of the polar ice sheet, is a complex physical process with intercoupling between ice crystals, wind field, temperature, and moisture. Here a…
We introduce a three-dimensional, computationally feasible, mesoscopic model for snow crystal growth, based on diffusion of vapor, anisotropic attachment, and a semi-liquid boundary layer. Several case studies are presented that faithfully…
Ice and snow have sometime been classified as a viscoelastic or viscoplastic mate- rial according to temperature, strain rate, pressure and time scale. Throughout experimental studies presented in the literature, it has been observed that…
Snow is a highly complex medium composed of ice crystals of various shapes and sizes. Knowledge of its intrinsic optical properties such as the scattering and absorption coefficient is tantamount to radiative transfer models in climate…
Snowflakes play a crucial role in weather and climate. A significant portion of precipitation that reaches the surface originates as ice, even when it ultimately falls as rain. Contrary to the popular image of symmetric, dendritic crystals,…
Facetted growth of snow crystals leads to a rich diversity of forms, and exhibits a remarkable sixfold symmetry. Snow crystal structures result from diffusion limited crystal growth in the presence of anisotropic surface energy and…
In engineering applications snow often undergoes large and fast deformations. During these deformations the snow transforms from a sintered porous material into a granular material. In order to capture the fundamental mechanical behavior of…
I describe a semi-empirical molecular model of the surface attachment kinetics governing ice crystal growth from water vapor as a function of temperature, supersaturation, and crystal mesostructure. An important new hypothesis in this model…
We examine the molecular dynamics of crystal growth in the presence of surface melting and surface impurities, and from this propose a detailed microscopic model for the growth of ice from the vapor phase. Our model naturally accounts for…
The structural dynamics of ice in the freezing - thawing process has been studied in the context of the concept of two-phase water. It was previously shown that water is a two-phase system consisting of free and bound (liquid crystal)…
A method is proposed for generating compact fractal disordered media, by generalizing the random midpoint displacement algorithm. The obtained structures are invasive stochastic fractals, with the Hurst exponent varying as a continuous…
Powder snow avalanches are highly dynamic, multiphase gravity-driven flows typically composed of a dense basal layer overlain by airborne layers in which snow particles are suspended within a turbulent air phase. Despite extensive work on…
We introduce a method of estimating parameters associated with a fractal random scattering medium, which utilizes the multiscale properties of the scattered field. The example of ray-density fluctuations beyond a phase screen with fractal…
The weathering crust is a layer of porous ice that can form at the surface of an ice sheet. It grows and decays in response changing weather and climate conditions, affecting the albedo, the melt rate, and the transport of meltwater across…
The detailed characterization of snow particles is critical for understanding the snow settling behavior and modeling the ground snow accumulation for various applications such as prevention of avalanches and snowmelt-caused floods, etc. In…
We show that the plastic deformation of snow under uniaxial compression is characterized by complex spatio-temporal strain localization phenomena. Deformation is characterized by repeated nucleation and propagation of compaction bands.…
Understanding and modeling snow particle dynamics in the atmosphere remains a significant challenge for atmospheric scientists, hydrologists, and glaciologists. Temporally and spatially varying rates of snow transport, deposition, and…