Parisa Ariya<\/a>, James McGill Professor of Chemistry and Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences.<\/p>\n\u201cThis discovery matters for everyone affected by changing weather patterns \u2013 from farmers and city planners to disaster response teams and climate policymakers,\u201d Pal said.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Had been too small to observe directly<\/p>\n
Mixed-phase clouds contain both ice crystals and liquid supercooled droplets, or water droplets that remain liquid at temperatures below 0\u00b0C.<\/p>\n
Ice formation in clouds begins with\u202fice-nucleating particles (INPs) \u2013 tiny airborne particles, often at the nanometre scale, that act as seeds for freezing. These INPs trigger the formation of ice crystals that can grow from nanometres to millimetres.<\/p>\n
Until now, these nanoscale ice crystals were too small to observe directly or distinguish from their liquid counterparts in real time. Instead, scientists were left to infer whether a particle was ice based on its size limit or analyze how the particle scattered light using a method called polarization ratio.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
A new instrument to observe ice formation in real time<\/p>\n
To overcome this challenge, the team developed the\u202fMcGill Real-Time Ice Nucleation Chamber (MRINC). It simulates cloud conditions in the lab through precise control over temperature and humidity.<\/p>\n
\u201cInto this chamber, we introduced silver iodide (AgI) particles \u2013 known to trigger ice formation \u2013and carefully adjusted the environment to replicate cloud-like conditions,\u201d Pal said.<\/p>\n
The researchers then used a laser-based imaging technique called\u202fdigital holographic microscopy\u202fto observe the formation of ice crystals in real time\u2014previously impossible at this scale. The resulting holographic images were analyzed using\u202fAI-powered software, which could instantly determine whether each particle was an ice crystal or a liquid droplet, and assess its size, shape and surface texture.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is the first time such detailed microphysical information has been captured at this scale, and with such fine detail,\u201d said Pal.<\/p>\n
Added Ariya: \u201cBecause of a lack of technologies, none of the climate change models could accurately predict these smaller ice crystals. MRINC enables us to advance our understanding of the interaction processes between ice nucleation, radiation and climate change.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Next stop: natural clouds<\/p>\n
The findings open a new window into the earliest stages of ice formation in clouds, with implications for satellite cloud observations, precipitation studies and even\u202fcloud seeding, a form of manual weather modification.<\/p>\n
As a next step, the team members are adapting the MRINC system for\u202ffield studies\u202faboard research aircraft and mountaintop observatories. They are also refining the instrument to make it even more precise and adaptable to different atmospheric conditions. These upgrades will allow researchers to track how various particles \u2013such as pollution, dust or wildfire smoke \u2013 affect ice formation.<\/p>\n
\u201cUltimately, our goal is to deliver real-time data that strengthens both climate science and operational weather forecasting,\u201d Pal added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Researchers have developed a novel method to detect and study how ice forms in mixed-phase clouds, significantly boosting…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":18966,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[49,48,16211,16212,16213,66,16214,16215],"class_list":["post-18965","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-devendra-pal","tag-mcgill-department-of-atmospheric-and-oceanic-sciences","tag-parisa-ariya","tag-science","tag-weather-forecasting","tag-weather-patterns"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18965","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18965"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18965\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18966"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18965"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18965"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18965"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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