What is the shape of snowflakes and how are snowflakes formed
4hw.com.cn: the weather has entered a cold winter, and snow is beginning to fall in many parts of the country. I believe you have seen photos of snowflakes in various shapes in your circle of friends. So what shape is the snowflake? How do snowflakes form? Let's have a look.
What shape is snow
Snow is in the shape of hexagonal flowers, and each hexagonal is not the same. Look carefully, there are about a dozen kinds of snow shapes. Most snowflakes are hexagonal, because snowflakes belong to hexagonal system. The small ice crystals of snowflakes in clouds have two main shapes. One is hexagonal, long and thin, called columnar crystal, but sometimes its two ends are sharp, like a needle, called needle crystal. The other is in the shape of a hexagonal sheet, just like the sheet cut from a hexagonal pencil, which is called flake crystal. There are many shapes of snowflakes. Each snowflake is an extremely exquisite pattern, which is praised by many artists.
Snowflakes are as like as two peas of ice crystals are grown by ice crystals. The most common form of snow is hexagonal. The various shapes of snowflakes are closely related to the water vapor conditions when they are formed. For hexagonal flake ice crystals, due to their different bending degrees on the surface, edge and corner, they have different saturated water vapor pressures, in which the saturated water vapor pressure on the corner is the largest, the edge is the last, and the plane is the smallest.
How does snow form
When the temperature drops to a certain temperature, it usually falls below zero. Do you know how the snow comes? How does snow form? In the mixed cloud, due to the coexistence of ice and water, the ice crystals continue to condense and increase into snowflakes. When the temperature under the cloud is lower than 0 ℃, snowflakes can fall to the ground and form snowfall. If the temperature under the cloud is higher than 0 ℃, sleet may occur. Snowflakes have many shapes, including star, column, flake, etc., but the basic shape is hexagonal. The reason why snowflakes are mostly hexagonal and have a variety of patterns is that hexagonal ice molecules are the most. For hexagonal flake ice crystals, due to their different curvature on the surface, edge and corner, they have different saturated water vapor pressures, in which the saturated water vapor pressure on the corner is the largest, the last on the edge and the smallest on the plane. When the actual water vapor pressure is the same, because the saturated water vapor pressure of each part of the ice crystal is different, the growth of condensation is also different. For example, when the actual water vapor pressure is only greater than the plane saturated water vapor pressure, the water vapor only condenses on the surface, forming columnar snowflakes. When the actual vapor pressure is greater than the saturated vapor pressure on the edge, condensation will occur on the edge and surface. Because the speed of condensation is also related to the curvature, where the curvature is large, the condensation is faster, so the condensation is faster on the edge of the ice crystal than on the surface, and more flake snowflakes are formed. When the actual water vapor pressure is greater than the saturated water vapor pressure on the corner, although there is water vapor condensation on the surface, edge and corner, the sharp corner is prominent, the water vapor supply is the most sufficient, and the condensation increases the fastest, so it mostly forms branched or star snowflakes. In addition, the ice crystal keeps moving, and its temperature and humidity conditions are constantly changing, which makes the growth rate of each part of the ice crystal inconsistent and forms a variety of snowflakes.