Atmospheric models improve understanding of ice-crystal formation

Science : Improved computer models can now “recreate certain atmospheric phenomena with impressive accuracy,” writes Emily Underwood for Science. Glaciologist Evgeny Podolskiy put such models to the test when he set out to study the strange feathery ice formations he had observed in 2009 on Japan’s Mount Zao. The so-called “shrimp tails” form when water droplets in the atmosphere collide with rocks and other slanted surfaces at high elevations. To determine the exact weather conditions under which the strange ice crystals appear, Podolskiy and coworkers used both the sophisticated Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model and an ice-accretion model. They reported their findings last month in the Journal of Geophysical Research. Such studies of ice-crystal formation could benefit telecommunications and wind-energy companies, which seek to avoid the icing of towers, turbines, and other structures at high altitudes.