Saturday, February 12, 2011

Snow pattern puzzle

snow pattern mystery

Why does snow behave in two mutually exclusive ways?

Pictures 1-4 - top row:
Here the snow mimics the pattern of the underlying surface.

Pictures 5-8 - bottom row:
Here the snow inverts the pattern of the underlying surface.

I have only vague ideas what might cause this:
- the hollows in the underground conduct heat differently than the tiles and protect the snow from melting,
- the hollows in the underground cause eddies in the air-stream and this accumulates more snow.

Marcel Minnaert does not mention this phenomenon (I think), but I will have to search his books again.

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