Ice Multiplication by Crystal Growth?Ice growing from the vapor along with tiny amounts of salt solution sheds free ice crystals, at -5C and saturation with respect to liquid water, in quiescent conditions. This is a more appealing explanation for the Hallett-Mossop effect than rime splintering, if it occurs primarily at temperatures near -5C.

Abstract:

Ice growing from the vapor, at -5C and liquid water supersaturation, often sheds crystals when it grows along with a small amount of salt solution. The experiments are done with single crystals growing in a temperature-controlled chamber with 5 ml of water in the bottom to maintain and control supersaturation, and the new crystals are detected when they fall into and nucleate the water in the bottom. Crystal growth is initiated by inserting into the growth chamber a pipet tip that contained a few microliters of very dilute salt solution that had been supercooled to -5C and nucleated at the tip. Growth from the vapor ensues, with condensation directly onto ice and onto whatever salt solution is exposed. The results are not completely reproducible, no doubt because the starting details of the exposure of ice and solution is not controllable. However, the shedding of crystals often occurs with starting NaCl concentrations of the order of 0.01 wt. percent, and almost never occurs with “pure” water. The shedding events themselves have not been identified, and an attractive hypothesis for how the shedding of ice occurs has not been found at the time of writing this abstract. By the time of the AGU meeting it is hoped that enough experiments will have been performed in order to say whether this effect is found only near -5C. If it requires a temperature near -5C then it seems to be an attractive explanation of the Hallett-Mossop process. It also, of course, is hoped that an attractive hypothesis for the mechanism of the shedding will have been found.