here is a chart to help you identify what the snowflakes are that you are seeing,
previous efforts have come up with a few different numbers for the total categories of solid precipitation, the new graphic is based on work from researchers based in Japan, the 39 categories can be further broken down into 121 subtypes,
- Column crystals
- Plane crystals
- Combination of column & plane crystals
- Aggregation of snow crystals
- Rimed snow crystals
- Germs of ice crystals
- Irregular snow particles
- Other solid precipitation.
why spend all this time classifying snowflakes? well, this is really the study of how crystals form, and that knowledge can be applied to making crystals for a host of other applications, silicon and other semiconductors in computers and electronics are built of crystals, for example, plus as a bonus they are stunning to look at, so next time you are being snowed under take a magnifying glass and see how many types of snow crystal you can see.
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