Singular Sublimation of Ice and Snow Crystals

Overview

Journal Nat Commun

Specialty Biology

Date 2018 Oct 12

PMID 30305638

Citations 6

Authors

Etienne Jambon-Puillet

Noushine Shahidzadeh

Daniel Bonn

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

The evaporation (sublimation) of ice and snow has a major impact on global climate, since the amount of ice and snow determines Earth's albedo. Yet, due to their complex geometry with several sharp regions which are singular for the evaporation, the precise evaporation dynamics of snow and ice crystals remains challenging to predict. Here, we study the sublimation of snowflakes and pointy ice drops. We show that the evaporation rates of water and ice drops are similar; they are both limited by the diffusive transport of the vapour. This allows us to predict ice and snowflake evaporation quantitatively by solving the diffusive free-boundary problem, which correctly predicts the rapid self-similar evolution of sharp edges and points. Beyond providing a conceptual picture to understand the sublimation of ice crystals, our results are more generally applicable to other diffusion problems such as the dissolution of salt crystals or pharmaceuticals.

Citing Articles

Physics of microscale freeform 3D printing of ice.

Garg A, Yang F, Ozdoganlar O, LeDuc P Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2024; 121(30):e2322330121.

PMID: 39008665 PMC: 11287161. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2322330121.

Scratch-Healing Behavior of Ice by Local Sublimation and Condensation.

Demmenie M, Kolpakov P, Nagata Y, Woutersen S, Bonn D J Phys Chem C Nanomater Interfaces. 2022; 126(4):2179-2183.

PMID: 35145575 PMC: 8819648. DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpcc.1c09590.

On the Use of the Term "Evapotranspiration".

Miralles D, Brutsaert W, Dolman A, Gash J Water Resour Res. 2020; 56(11):e2020WR028055.

PMID: 33380753 PMC: 7757266. DOI: 10.1029/2020WR028055.

Observation of sublimation of ice using terahertz spectroscopy.

Matsumura K, Kawase K, Takeya K R Soc Open Sci. 2020; 7(9):192083.

PMID: 33047009 PMC: 7540754. DOI: 10.1098/rsos.192083.

Stains from Freeze-Dried Drops.

Jambon-Puillet E Langmuir. 2019; 35(16):5541-5548.

PMID: 30933562 PMC: 6484381. DOI: 10.1021/acs.langmuir.9b00084.

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