Snow are able to grow to hundreds of micrometers or millimeters in size at the expense of the water droplets by the Wegener–Bergeron–Findeisen process. The corresponding depletion of water vapor causes the ice crystals to grow at the droplets' expense. These large crystals are an efficient source of precipitation, since they fall through the atmosphere due to their mass, and may collide and stick together in clusters, or aggregates. These aggregates are snowflakes, and are usually the type of ice particle that falls to the ground. Although the ice is clear, scattering of light by the crystal facets and hollows/imperfections mean
Frost flower (sea ice) frozen sea "like a meadow spreading off in all directions. Every available surface was covered with them." When allowed to melt, the one to two milliliters of water recovered was found to hold about a million bacteria. Professor Jody Deming believes that as the poles warm, there will be more and more of these meadows, because there will be more and more open sea that turns to thin ice in winter, and her team is eager to discover what the bacteria living in the frost flowers are doing. Frost flower (sea ice) Frost flowers are ice crystals commonly found growing