How to Study Ice Crystals
Studying ice crystals takes creativity of the mind and spirit---you have to be intrigued by the world around you to wonder how something so seemingly perfect forms, exists and disappears. A snowflake is a cluster of ice crystals that falls from a cloud. To study these glassy beauties, gather a few resources and tools before you get out in the snow.
- Difficulty:
- Moderately Challenging
Instructions
Things You'll Need
- Snowflake or ice crystal field guide
- Fold-up magnifier
- Black or dark winter coat
- Photo-microscope (optional)
- Microscope (optional)
-
-
1
Go to a cold place where it snows, preferably near a lake. Quality snowflakes exist in the coldest, below freezing temperatures. Find a snowy town near a lake where ideal ice crystals form due to lake effect. Lake Champlain, the Great Plains, North Dakota and Manitoba all have predictably super cold temperatures and well formed crystals. But your wintry backyard might be just fine.
-
2
Find powder snow. Powder snow is a thin, dry snow surface which is composed of fresh, loose ice crystals. Make a note to learn the types of crystals to identify each.
-
3
Get a good field guide. Borrow a snowflake or ice crystal identification book from the library, buy one at a bookstore, or access an abbreviated version online (like http://www.its.caltech.edu/~atomic/snowcrystals/class/class.htm). Ken Libbrecht's Field Guide to Snowflakes is a reliable book to pick.
-
4
Magnify ice. Watch how snowflakes form, crystallize, and melt. Buy an inexpensive magnifier at a drugstore or hardware shop. For a few dollars a small fold-up magnifier will work fine for crystal identification.
-
5
Wear black. If you're a novice just staring to explore ice crystals and snowflakes, you don't need any equipment to recognize and study flakes. Wear a black coat out and be ready for amazing shapes to fall on your sleeves. Observe closely. Notice patterns and similar type flakes (though all are different).
-
6
Keep the magnifier ready, and search. When a snowflake tumbles onto your dark winter coat, magnify it. Open your field guide book or reference notes to identify the type of ice crystal and which shapes amaze you most. Note that not all snowfalls bring nice crystals, but eventually you'll find beauties.
-
7
Focus on the flakes. Classify the type by its characteristics. Name a hollow column, sectored plates, simple stars, stellar dendrites, split planes and stars, triangular forms, and so on. Memorize each---know their shape-based names.
-
8
Watch snowflakes form, and rewind. Physicists make time-lapse movies showing magnified ice crystals forming and melting. On a loop, the crystal cycles back and forth between freezing and above freezing temperatures. Ice arms stretch and spread quickly from plate to tip, and shrink in again. Study the process. Hypothesize how it works.
-
9
Photograph snow. If you're serious about it, build a photo-microscope. You need an SLR digital or film camera (but digital is superior for this craft); a lens tube (assorted kinds); a base plate and mounting hardware, and a computer to work with digital photographs. You will spend over $1,000 this way but these tools will produce stunning work. Study how to keep your camera warm and how to handle snow crystals before you start shooting the tiny bits of snow.
-
1
Tips & Warnings
You can also take a university course in the physics of snowflakes, molecular dynamics of crystal growth, or meteorology. The University of Utah, Hokkaido University and Yale University, for example, all have experts in the field.
Lake effect is a localized snowfall that happens when a mass of cold enough air moves over a body of warmer water. The cold-warm clash creates unstable temperatures in the atmosphere and as a result, clouds billow over the lake and eventually whip up heavy snow showers.
Students don't have to "classify" ice crystals. Nothing requires a name. If you prefer, study each crystal shape and make your own recognition system like scientists do.
