“The many complicated ways how ice forms in the atmosphere”

Posted on September 20, 2023 by Clara Tran

Curious about how ice crystals form in the atmosphere? Spend an hour with our STEM speaker, Dr. Daniel Knopf, Full Professor of School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences with an affiliated appointment in the Department of Chemistry.

Date/Time: Tuesday, September 26, 2023 from 1pm-2pm
Location: Special Collections Seminar Room, E-2340, second floor of the Melville Library

How ice crystals form in the atmosphere is considered one of the grand challenges in the atmospheric sciences. Accurate prediction of ice nucleation is crucial to improve simulations of cloud formation and, thus, climate predictions. In addition, most precipitation is initiated by ice crystals. Hence, prediction of rain or extreme weather events are bound to a fundamental understanding of atmospheric ice formation. This presentation introduces the most common pathways how we think ice forms in the atmosphere. Ice nucleates on nano- to micrometer-sized airborne particles, so-called ice-nucleating particles, that are physicochemically complex. Experiments that aim to resolve on the nanoscale the ice-nucleating particles and relate the particles’ properties to their ice formation ability are presented. Current debates on how to interpret ice nucleation experiments and the consequences for application in cloud-resolving models will be discussed.

Please register here for this special event.