Discover amazing snow ice phenomena

Many people do not like winter - cold temperatures, difficulty driving and all day staying at home. It is true that summer is very brilliant, but winter can create equally amazing snow and ice phenomena.

 

There are colorful pink and floating on the ground, these bright columns are often mistaken for flying saucers. Those who encountered this strange phenomenon in the cold winter night were often overwhelmed by their splendor, as if it were an alien building or some supernatural power. However, the scientific basis behind the existence of these bright columns is quite trivial.

Les Cowley, a physicist and an expert in atmospheric optics explained: 'Like all other halos, this is purely the beams of light obtained from millions of millions of ice crystals that reflect light to the eyes or machine. your picture'.

In very cold and calm winter nights, ice crystals on high altitudes can form closer to the ground and reflect street lights from cities and car lights, leading to the appearance of columns fanciful shimmer. They often have the same color as the light they reflect, which explains the brilliance of bright columns.

Interestingly, the same phenomenon can occur when sunlight or moonlight reflects on ice crystals, resulting in the formation of columns of sun or moon.

 

Ice stalactites are formed from snow or hard ice at an altitude of more than 4,000 meters.

This strange ice form looks like deadly sharp nails. In fact, some ice stalactites may be higher than human heads - up to 6 meters. There are no other traces of snow around the ice stalactites, which can startle you when you see spiky ice pillars poking up from the ground like the claws of a giant monster.

Ice stalactites are formed from snow or hard ice at an altitude of more than 4,000 meters. They can be found in shallow valleys where the snow is the thickest and the sunlight is not too strong.

Due to the sublimation process (when the snow evaporates directly without becoming water), the snow will deform randomly when some areas sublimate faster than others, leaving deeper depressions. Over time, sharp, undulating snow and ice fields were formed. Don't be fooled by their fragile appearance. Although beautiful, but ice stalactites are a difficult obstacle for mountain climbers.

 

Ice bridges are formed from ice chips (a sparkling mixture of ice crystals and water).

In a remote village in Siberi in 2016, residents are greeted by a strange kind of objects that seem to have been washed by seawater.

Stretching through 18km are giant ice balls, some up to 1 meter in diameter or as small as a tennis ball, covering the edge of Ob Bay. It was like being prepared for a snowball throwing game. Even the elders in the village did not know where these balls came from.

Also known as ice rollers , ice bridges are formed from ice chips (a glittering mixture of ice crystals and water). Sea water and strong winds caused these ice cubes to roll and roll, forming ball-like spheres, sometimes brown due to sand.

Lighter waves will create a flatter version, like a pastry. Unfortunately, with a weight of up to 23kg, these hard ice balls will not make snowballing fun.

 

Everyone knows what volcanoes are, holes through the earth's crust spewing molten lava flows and deadly poisonous gas, forming a magnificent view of nature. However, there is a kind of 'volcano' that erupts melting ice.

Ice volcanoes (also known as cryovolocano) are similar to normal volcanoes in the pressure formed below the surface, causing strong eruptions or light currents. However, instead of erupting volcanic lava ice again spewed cold air including water, ammonia, or methane.

It is even more exciting to discover these volcanoes on Pluto in 2016, although they were recorded in 1989 on Triton, the biggest moon of Neptune.

Ice volcanoes can reach unimaginable proportions. One of them, Pluto Mons tops of Pluto, reaches an incredible height of 4km and a length of 145km.

Snow thunder

Snow thunder is a phenomenon when thunder and lightning occur during a snowstorm. Conditions must be appropriate for this to happen. The weather is still cold enough to form snow, but the air layer near the ground must be warmer than the air above it.

Just like in a thunderstorm, warm and moist air evaporates to form unstable air columns, which then condense into clouds. When snow storm clouds form bulges called cloud towers, it signals an unstable air flow that results in hail and snow.

When these particles collide, the charge will accumulate and be released in the form of lightning. Unfortunately, even if you are in the right place for this rare weather phenomenon, most of what you can see is the dazzling light and the thunderous sound of thunder.

 

Fog is created similar to frost.

The ancient English dictionary defines 'hoarfrost' as 'frost at the white hairs like the old beard'. This 'fur' can be seen covering trees, branches and shrubs with thin ice crystals on foggy days, giving enchanting looks to the cold winter day.

Fog is created similar to frost. When the vapor molecules come into contact with grass leaves or other objects at temperatures below freezing, deposition will occur. Deposition (when the gas state is directly transformed into a solid state) results in the covering of ice crystals that look like hairs. The higher the air humidity, the thicker the coating will be, creating more spectacular and complex images.