Morphological Instability of Polyhedral Ice Crystals Growing in Air at Low Temperature

Abstract

The morphology of snow crystals growing at a low temperature has been experimentally studied. The habit and the morphological instability of the crystals vary remarkably with air pressure. In addition, the morphological instability of the crystals depends not only on air pressure but also on supersaturation, crystal size, the ratio of growth rates and the ratio of axial lengths. It is supposed from the experimental results that long prisms with small skeletal structures forming at low supersaturation are precipitating in polar regions.