THE FORMATION OF DEW

Dew is the condensation into liquid droplets of water vapor on a substrate. The presence of a substrate is the origin of the peculiarities and richness of the phenomenon. We review the aspects related to heterogeneous nucleation and subsequent growth of water droplets. A key point is the drop interaction through drop fusion or coalescence, which leads to scaling in the growth and gives universality to the process. The effects of substrate heterogeneity and gravity effects are also considered. Coalescence events lead to temporal and spatio-temporal fluctuations in the substrate coverage, drop configuration, etc., which give rise to a very peculiar dynamics. When the substrate is a liquid or a liquid crystal, the drop pattern can exhibit special spatial orders, such as crystalline, hexatic phases and fractal contours. And condensation on a solid substrate near its melting point can make the drop jump. The applications of monitoring dew formation are manyfold. Examples can be found in nanoelectronics and optics (vapor deposition and thin films), medicine (sterilization process), agriculture (green houses). We here discuss in greater details the production of clean water by ''atmospheric wells''.