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Stable and unstable fall motions of plate-like ice crystal analogues

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Stout, J. R. orcid id iconORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2858-4872, Westbrook, C. D. orcid id iconORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2889-8815, Stein, T. H. M. orcid id iconORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9215-5397 and McCorquodale, M. W. (2024) Stable and unstable fall motions of plate-like ice crystal analogues. Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, 24 (19). pp. 11133-11155. ISSN 1680-7324 doi: 10.5194/acp-24-11133-2024

Abstract/Summary

The orientation of ice crystals affects their microphysical behaviour, growth, and precipitation. Orientation also affects interaction with electromagnetic radiation, and through this it influences remote sensing signals, in situ observations, and optical effects. Fall behaviours of a variety of 3D-printed plate-like ice crystal analogues in a tank of water–glycerine mixture are observed with multi-view cameras and digitally reconstructed to simulate the falling of ice crystals in the atmosphere. Four main falling regimes were observed: stable, zigzag, transitional, and spiralling. Stable motion is characterised by no resolvable fluctuations in velocity or orientation, with the maximum dimension oriented horizontally. The zigzagging regime is characterised by a back-and-forth swing in a constant vertical plane, corresponding to a time series of inclination angle approximated by a rectified sine wave. In the spiralling regime, analogues consistently incline at an angle between 7 and 28°, depending on particle shape. Transitional behaviour exhibits motion in between spiral and zigzag, similar to that of a falling spherical pendulum. The inclination angles that unstable planar ice crystals make with the horizontal plane are found to have a non-zero mode. This observed behaviour does not fit the commonly used Gaussian model of inclination angle. The typical Reynolds number when oscillations start is strongly dependent on shape: solid hexagonal plates begin to oscillate at Re =237, whereas several dendritic shapes remain stable throughout all experiments, even at Re > 1000. These results should be considered within remote sensing applications wherein the orientation characteristics of ice crystals are used to retrieve their properties.

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Item Type Article
URI https://reading-clone.eprints-hosting.org/id/eprint/120272
Item Type Article
Refereed Yes
Divisions Science > School of Mathematical, Physical and Computational Sciences > Department of Meteorology
Publisher Copernicus Publications
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