The most common clouds in our atmosphere, thin and wispy cirrus clouds, have been caught on camera forming from microscopic pockets of mineral and ice. The result is a cartoonish timelapse of the differently shaped particles growing and blending together.
But the reason behind the video was not just to amaze and entertain us - a group of atmospheric scientists want to advance our understanding of ice nucleation, a central part of cloud formation that is typically difficult to gather empirical data on.
Writing in the journal of Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics, the group describes how it used an environmental scanning electron microscope (ESEM) to record the formation of a baby cirrus cloud. Science Magazine explains how the team modified the microscope to include a chamber that could control the temperature, pressure and humidity, to ensure conditions mimicked those at 6,000 metres up - ideal for cirrus cloud formation.
Into the chamber they added kaolinite particles - a clay mineral that often helps form high, icy clouds like cirrus - and water vapour. They watched the water vapour cling to the mineral particles and freeze to form crystals, photographing the progress every three seconds to create the embedded video. They found that the ice crystals tended to form at the edges of the minerals. The data will enable the team to form new predictions about cloud formation.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
