Microscopic crystallized beauty

By Thomas Kuhn and Sandra Vázquez-Martín, LTU (Luleå University of Technology), Kiruna, Sweden.

Our photo is a composite of two images, side- and top-view of a snowflake. Side-view image is a double exposure to allow fall speed measurement. These images were taken in Kiruna on 10th December 2014 with our ground-based in situ instrument provided by two CCD cameras with 3.74 micrometer pixel resolution. This study helps us to characterize the microphysical properties of the snowflakes including their different shapes.