Measurement of Falling Velocity of Individual Snow Crystals

[摘要] The falling velocity of individual snow crystals was ovserved by means of stroboscopic photographs. At the same time, the shape, dimension and mass of those snow crystals were also measured from the photomicrographs of them. The plane type crystals were classified into six groups, namely hexagonal plates, crystals with sectorlike branches, crystals with broad branches, dendritic crystals, stellar crystals and thick plates. Furthermore, the columnar crystals were also observed.Consequently, the relationship between the falling velocity and the dimension of particles was obtained for their several major types of snow crystals, and it was found that the relationship was well explained by the computation method which use the drag coefficient determined by the model experiment.

[学科分类] 大气科学