EGU21-16007, updated on 07 May 2021
https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu21-16007
EGU General Assembly 2021
© Author(s) 2021. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Matching crystal habits and radiosonde profiles in Northern Finland

Claudia Mignani1, Lukas Zimmermann1, Rigel Kivi2, Alexis Berne3, and Franz Conen1
Claudia Mignani et al.
  • 1University of Basel, Department of Environmental Sciences, Basel, Switzerland (claudia.mignani@unibas.ch)
  • 2Space and Earth Observation Centre, Finnish Meteorological Institute, Sodankylä, Finland (rigel.kivi@fmi.fi)
  • 3Environmental Remote Sensing Laboratory, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland (alexis.berne@epfl.ch)

Crystal habits encode atmospheric conditions. Temperature and relative humidity with respect to ice and liquid water are the microphysical drivers of the growth of snow crystals in terms of shape, size and degree of riming, while cloud thickness and the related growth time of crystals are the dynamical drivers. According to current versions of Nakaya’s habit diagram, rather large and eventually rimed crystals are formed above supersaturation. Below supersaturation compact and unrimed snow crystals are to be expected. In this study, we combine radiosonde profiles with snowflake images captured at the surface by a multi-angle snowflake camera during two-and-a-half winter seasons in Northern Finland (67.367 °N, 26.629 °E). Our objective is to quantify how well crystal habits correspond with what would be expected from radiosonde profiles at this continental site in the Arctic.

How to cite: Mignani, C., Zimmermann, L., Kivi, R., Berne, A., and Conen, F.: Matching crystal habits and radiosonde profiles in Northern Finland, EGU General Assembly 2021, online, 19–30 Apr 2021, EGU21-16007, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu21-16007, 2021.

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