Yours

Film2018Subtitles

Scientists Create First-Ever 3D Model of a Melting Snowflake

NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

ScienceSpace

At the NASA Image and Video Library

Clips are not offered for this film: NASA's media guidelines set the terms of its reuse themselves, not as a public licence.

About

This visualization is based on the first three-dimensional numerical model of melting snowflakes in the atmosphere, developed by scientist Jussi Leinonen of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. A better understanding of how snow melts can help scientists recognize the signature in radar signals of heavier, wetter snow -- the kind that breaks power lines and tree limbs -- and could be a step toward improving predictions of this hazard. The model reproduces key features of melting snowflakes that have been observed in nature: first, meltwater gathers in any concave regions of the snowflake's surface. These liquid-water regions merge as they grow and eventually form a shell of liquid around an ice core, finally developing into a water drop. The visualization shows a typical snowflake less than half an inch (one centimeter) long. The snowflake is composed of individual ice crystals whose arms became entangled when they collided in the air. The extremities of the arms melt first because they are more exposed to heat from the surrounding air. Water first fills small cavities within the ice crystals, and then these overflow, allowing water to pool into droplets. "I got interested in modeling melting snow because of the way it affects our observations with remote sensing instruments," Leinonen said. A radar "profile" of the atmosphere from top to bottom shows a very bright, prominent layer at the altitude where falling snow and hail melt, much brighter than the…

Human-made No record of this work says a model made it. What this means.

Archive
NASA Image and Video Library, in NASA
Licence or status
NASA media guidelines, as the NASA Image and Video Library states it.
Credit
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Language
English
Country
United States
Subtitles
English
Who can watch
The archive gives no rating. Invisible Network shows it to Tweens profiles and older, judged from its collection and subjects. How films are placed