Universality in snowflake aggregation

被引:62
作者
Westbrook, CD [1 ]
Ball, RC
Field, PR
Heymsfield, AJ
机构
[1] Univ Warwick, Dept Phys, Coventry CV4 7AL, W Midlands, England
[2] Met Off, Exeter EX1 3PB, Devon, England
[3] Natl Ctr Atmospher Res, Boulder, CO 80307 USA
关键词
D O I
10.1029/2004GL020363
中图分类号
P [天文学、地球科学];
学科分类号
07 ;
摘要
Aggregation of ice crystals is a key process governing precipitation. Individual ice crystals exhibit considerable diversity of shape, and a wide range of physical processes could influence their aggregation; despite this we show that a simple computer model captures key features of aggregate shape and size distribution reported recently from cirrus clouds. The results prompt a new way to plot the experimental size distributions leading to remarkably good dynamical scaling. That scaling independently confirms that there is a single dominant aggregation mechanism at play, albeit our model (based on undeflected trajectories to contact) does not capture its form exactly.
引用
收藏
页码:L151041 / 3
页数:3
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