Interface control and snow crystal growth

Abstract

The growth of snow crystals is dependent on the temperature and saturation of the environment. In the case of dendrites, Reiter's local two-dimensional model provides a realistic approach to the study of dendrite growth. In this paper we obtain a new geometric rule that incorporates interface control, a basic mechanism of crystallization that is not taken into account in the original Reiter's model. By defining two new variables, growth latency and growth direction, our improved model gives a realistic model not only for dendrite but also for plate forms.