scholarly journals Technical Note: Formation of airborne ice crystals in a wall independent reactor (WIR) under atmospheric conditions

2008 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 13017-13042
Author(s):  
E. Fries ◽  
W. Haunold ◽  
E. Starokozhev ◽  
K. Palitzsch ◽  
R. Sitals ◽  
...  

Abstract. Both, gas and particle scavenging contribute to the transport of organic compounds by ice crystals in the troposphere. To simulate these processes an experimental setup was developed to form airborne ice crystals under atmospheric conditions. Experiments were performed in a wall independent reactor (WIR) installed in a walk-in cold chamber maintained constantly at −20°C. Aerosol particles were added to the carrier gas of ambient air by an aerosol generator to allow heterogeneous ice formation. Temperature variations and hydrodynamic conditions of the WIR were investigated to determine the conditions for ice crystal formation and crystal growth by vapour deposition. In detail, the dependence of temperature variations from flow rate and temperature of the physical wall as well as temperature variations with an increasing reactor depth were studied. The conditions to provide a stable aerosol concentration in the carrier gas flow were also studied. The temperature distribution inside the reactor was strongly dependent on flow rate and physical wall temperature. At an inlet temperature of −20°C, a flow rate of 30 L•min−1 and a physical wall temperature of +5°C turned out to provide ideal conditions for ice formation. At these conditions a sharp and stable laminar down draft "jet stream" of cold air in the centre of the reactor was produced. Temperatures measured at the chamber outlet were kept well below the freezing point in the whole reactor depth of 1.0 m. Thus, melting did not affect ice formation and crystal growth. The maximum residence time for airborne ice crystals was calculated to at 40 s. Ice crystal growth rates increased also with increasing reactor depth. The maximum ice crystal growth rate was calculated at 2.82 mg• s−1. Further, the removal efficiency of the cleaning device for aerosol particles was 99.8% after 10 min. A reliable particle supply was attained after a preliminary lead time of 15 min. Thus, the minimum lead time was determined at 25 min. Several test runs revealed that the WIR is suitable to perform experiments with airborne ice crystals.

2017 ◽  
Vol 58 ◽  
pp. 8.1-8.13 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel J. Cziczo ◽  
Luis Ladino ◽  
Yvonne Boose ◽  
Zamin A. Kanji ◽  
Piotr Kupiszewski ◽  
...  

Abstract It has been known that aerosol particles act as nuclei for ice formation for over a century and a half (see Dufour). Initial attempts to understand the nature of these ice nucleating particles were optical and electron microscope inspection of inclusions at the center of a crystal (see Isono; Kumai). Only within the last few decades has instrumentation to extract ice crystals from clouds and analyze the residual material after sublimation of condensed-phase water been available (see Cziczo and Froyd). Techniques to ascertain the ice nucleating potential of atmospheric aerosols have only been in place for a similar amount of time (see DeMott et al.). In this chapter the history of measurements of ice nucleating particles, both in the field and complementary studies in the laboratory, are reviewed. Remaining uncertainties and artifacts associated with measurements are described and suggestions for future areas of improvement are made.


CrystEngComm ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 19 (16) ◽  
pp. 2163-2167 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles H. Z. Kong ◽  
Ivanhoe K. H. Leung ◽  
Vijayalekshmi Sarojini

Synthetic antifreeze peptides based on the hyperactive antifreeze protein modify the shape of ice crystals and show enhanced antifreeze activity with the addition of a small molecule.


2018 ◽  
Vol 115 (29) ◽  
pp. 7479-7484 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maddalena Bayer-Giraldi ◽  
Gen Sazaki ◽  
Ken Nagashima ◽  
Sepp Kipfstuhl ◽  
Dmitry A. Vorontsov ◽  
...  

Ice-binding proteins (IBPs) affect ice crystal growth by attaching to crystal faces. We present the effects on the growth of an ice single crystal caused by an ice-binding protein from the sea ice microalga Fragilariopsis cylindrus (fcIBP) that is characterized by the widespread domain of unknown function 3494 (DUF3494) and known to cause a moderate freezing point depression (below 1 °C). By the application of interferometry, bright-field microscopy, and fluorescence microscopy, we observed that the fcIBP attaches to the basal faces of ice crystals, thereby inhibiting their growth in the c direction and resulting in an increase in the effective supercooling with increasing fcIBP concentration. In addition, we observed that the fcIBP attaches to prism faces and inhibits their growth. In the event that the effective supercooling is small and crystals are faceted, this process causes an emergence of prism faces and suppresses crystal growth in the a direction. When the effective supercooling is large and ice crystals have developed into a dendritic shape, the suppression of prism face growth results in thinner dendrite branches, and growth in the a direction is accelerated due to enhanced latent heat dissipation. Our observations clearly indicate that the fcIBP occupies a separate position in the classification of IBPs due to the fact that it suppresses the growth of basal faces, despite its moderate freezing point depression.


The practice of cold storage for preserving labile material of biological origin is widespread. The general utility of this method and the successful preservation of living cells and tissues in the frozen state has overshadowed the fact that freezing can be a harmful process to living cells (Wood 1956). It used to be thought that the crushing or spearing action of ice crystal growth was the principal source of damage by freezing; indeed so reasonable is this theory that it is difficult to believe that some at least of the harmful effects of freezing are not due to this cause. The development of the theories of damage by ice crystal growth have been described in detail by Luyet & Gehenio (1940), and by Meryman (1956). By contrast with damage on a macroscopic scale which might occur during the growth of ice crystals there is evidence to show that freezing can damage the molecular constituents of living cells, and this is most unlikely to be a direct consequence of the intrusion of ice crystals. This aspect of the problem of freezing damage forms the basis of this paper.


2011 ◽  
Vol 11 (8) ◽  
pp. 23139-23167 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. E. Wise ◽  
K. J. Baustian ◽  
T. Koop ◽  
M. A. Freedman ◽  
E. J. Jensen ◽  
...  

Abstract. Sea-salt aerosol particles (SSA) are ubiquitous in the marine boundary layer and over coastal areas. Therefore SSA have ability to directly and indirectly affect the Earth's radiation balance. The influence SSA have on climate is related to their water uptake and ice nucleation characteristics. In this study, optical microscopy coupled with Raman spectroscopy was used to detect the formation of an NaCl hydrate that could form under atmospheric conditions. NaCl(s) particles deliquesced at the well established value of 75.7 ± 2.5 % RH. NaCl(aq) particles effloresced to a mixture of hydrated and non-hydrated particles at temperatures between 236 and 252 K. The aqueous particles effloresced into the non-hydrated form at temperatures warmer than 252 K. At temperatures colder than 236 K all particles effloresced into the hydrated form. The deliquescence relative humidities (DRH) of hydrated NaCl(s) particles ranged from 76.6 to 93.2 % RH. Based on the measured DRH and efflorescence relative humidities (ERH), we estimate crystalline NaCl particles could be in the hydrated form 40–80 % of the time in the troposphere. Additionally, the ice nucleating abilities of NaCl(s) and hydrated NaCl(s) were determined at temperatures ranging from 221 to 238 K. NaCl(s) particles depositionally nucleated ice at an average Sice value of 1.11 ± 0.07. Hydrated NaCl(s) particles depositionally nucleated ice at an average Sice value of 1.02 ± 0.04. When a mixture of hydrated and anhydrous NaCl(s) particles was present in the same sample, ice preferentially nucleated on the hydrated particles 100 % of the time. While both types of particles are efficient ice nuclei, hydrated NaCl(s) particles are better ice nuclei than NaCl(s) particles.


2011 ◽  
Vol 11 (8) ◽  
pp. 23761-23800
Author(s):  
M. W. Gallagher ◽  
P. J. Connolly ◽  
A. Heymsfield ◽  
K. N. Bower ◽  
T. W. Choularton ◽  
...  

Abstract. Aircraft measurements of the microphysics of a tropical convective anvil (at temperatures ~−60 °C) forming above the HECTOR storm have been performed. The observed microphysics has been compared to a bulk and explicit microphysical model of the anvil region including crystal aggregation and sedimentation. It has been found that in flights made using straight and level runs perpendicular to the storm that the number of ice crystals initially decreased with distance from the storm as aggregation took place resulting in larger crystals followed by their loss due to sedimentation. At still greater distances from the storm the number of very small crystals increased. This is attributed to the formation of new ice crystals on aerosol particles as the ice super saturation rose following the depletion of the larger ice particles following aggregation and sedimentation. Comparison with the explicit microphysics model showed that the changes in the shapes of the ice crystal spectra as a function of distance from the storm could be explained by the explicit microphysical model if the aggregation efficiency was set to E~0.02. It is noteworthy that this aggregation efficiency is much larger than values normally used in cloud resolving models at these temperatures (typically E~0.0016). Furthermore if the bulk model is used then optimum agreement was reached with a collection efficiency for aggregation of E~0.05. These results are important for the treatment of the evolution and lifetime of tropical cirrus clouds.


2007 ◽  
Vol 64 (7) ◽  
pp. 2210-2237 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. Hashino ◽  
G. J. Tripoli

Abstract This paper describes the Spectral Ice Habit Prediction System (SHIPS), which represents a continuous-property approach to microphysics simulation in an Eulerian cloud-resolving model (CRM). A two-moment hybrid-bin method is adopted to predict the solid hydrometeor distribution, where the distribution is divided into the mass bins with a simple mass distribution inside each bin. Each bin is characterized by a single representative ice crystal habit and the type of solid hydrometeor. These characteristics are diagnosed based on a series of particle property variables (PPVs) of solid hydrometeors that reflect the history of microphysical processes and the mixing between bins and air parcels in space. Thus, SHIPS allows solid hydrometeors to evolve characteristics and size distribution based on their movement through a cloud. SHIPS was installed into the University of Wisconsin-Nonhydrostatic Modeling System (UW-NMS) and tested for ice nucleation and vapor deposition processes. Two-dimensional idealized simulations were employed to simulate a winter orographic storm observed during the second Improvement of Microphysical Parameterization through Observational Verification Experiment (IMPROVE-2) campaign. The simulated vertical distributions of ice crystal habits showed that the dynamic advection of dendrites produces wider dendritic growth region than local atmospheric conditions suggest. SHIPS showed the sensitivities of the habit distribution in the low- and midlevel to the upper-level growth mode (T < −20°C) of ice crystals through the sedimentation. Comparison of the results to aircraft observations casts doubt on the role of the columnar growth mode (T < −20°C) traditionally thought to be dominant in the literature. The results demonstrated how the complexity of the vapor deposition growth of ice crystals, including dendrites and capped columns, in varying temperature and moisture lead to particular observed habits.


1979 ◽  
Vol 27 (11) ◽  
pp. 1520-1523 ◽  
Author(s):  
P M Frederik ◽  
W M Busing

Frozen thin sections and sections from freeze-dried and embedded tissue are used for the autoradiographic localization of diffusible substances at the electron microscope level. The presence of ice crystals in such sections may limit the autoradiographic resolution. Ice crystals are formed during freezing and may grow during subsequent processing of tissue. The contribution of ice crystal growth to the final image was estimated by measuring the distribution of the ice crystal sizes in freeze-etch replicas and in sections from freeze-dried and embedded tissues. A surface layer (10-15 mu) without visible ice crystals was present in both preparations. Beneath this surface layer the diameter of ice crystals increased towards the interior with the same relationship between crystal size and distance from the surface in the freeze-etch preparation as in the freeze-dry preparation. Ice crystal growth occurring during a much longer time during freeze-drying compared to freeze-etching does not significantly contribute to the final image in the electron microscope. The formation of ice crystals during freezing determines to a large extent the image (and therefore the autoradiographic resolution) of freeze-dry preparations and this probably holds also for thin cryosections of which examples are given.


2003 ◽  
Vol 37 ◽  
pp. 129-133 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karen Guldbæ K Schmidt ◽  
Dorthe Dahl-Jensen

AbstractA simple model for crystal growth in the ice shell of Europa has been made in order to estimate the size of ice crystals at Europa’s surface. If mass is lost from the surface of Europa due to sputtering processes, and the ice thickness is constant in time, ice crystals will be transported upwards in the ice shell. The crystals will therefore grow under varying conditions through the shell. The model predicts that ice crystals are 4 cm– 80 m across at the surface. For the preferred parameter values, a crystal size of the order of 7 m is calculated.


Volume 3 ◽  
2004 ◽  
Author(s):  
Z. M. Li ◽  
X. F. Peng

Frost formation on flat cold surfaces was experimentally investigated, particularly the dynamic process was visually observed. During test runs, a plastic film was used to separate the cold surface from moist air, and formation of ice crystals was observed using microscope visualization technique as the film was removed and the cold surface reached to a specified temperature. In crystal growth stage of frost formation, a new phenomenon was found during ice crystal growth process. A layer of irregular crystal embryos was formed at the earlier stage, and these crystal embryos vanished when ice crystals with regular form grew up along nicks on the plate. And then, ice crystals on the plate kept growing slowly, while the area without ice crystals kept clean. This process is divided into three stages: formation of crystal embryos, mutation of ice crystals, and growth of ice crystal. Duration times of the first two stages seemed to be constant for different cases.


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