Ice_crystal

Dendrytic ice crystals

Ice crystals - small crystalline form of ice including hexagonal columns, hexagonal plates, dendritic crystals, and diamond dust.

Snowflakes by Wilson Bentley, 1902

Simple ice crystals have hexagonal symmetry.

Temperature and water vapor humidity determine crystalline forms. Ice crystals are responsible for various atmospheric optics displays in the atmosphere. The principal axis (c axis) of a single crystal of ice is perpendicular to the axis of hexagonal symmetry. Planes perpendicular to this axis are called basal planes. Ice clouds are composed of ice crystals. The most notable one is cirrus and ice fog.

See also

• snowflakes

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Snow#Snow_crystals/flakes

External links

• Caltech homepage
• American Meteorological Society Glossary

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