Atmospheric phenomenon "ice needle". Description and causes

Ice needles - an atmospheric phenomenon, which has been observed more than once on the territory of Russia and other countries. Sometimes it is even called the Northern Lights, but these are different concepts. What is an ice needle? And how is it formed?

Atmospheric phenomena and precipitation

The atmosphere is the outer shell of our planet and consists of a mixture of different gases. In it, the physical and chemical processes that determine the weather conditions on the Earth are constantly occurring. The visible manifestation of these processes is called atmospheric phenomena.

Their spectrum is very wide and includes both the usual phenomena (rain, snow, hail, frost, dew, storm, storm, etc.), and rather rare (halo, solar pillars). Optical and electrical phenomena, hydrometeors and lithometeors are usually isolated.

The ice needle refers to hydrometeors or sediments. They are water in a solid or liquid state, which is released from the air or falls out of the clouds. Hydrometeors are snow, ice, rain, fog and other phenomena associated with water. They affect the weather and climate in different parts of the world.

Icy Needle

Many people at least once dreamed of seeing the aurora borealis. For this they are even ready to go closer to the poles. But the glow of the sky occurs not only in high latitudes. The reason for this may be an ice needle, which, by ignorance, is also called the Northern Lights. Of course, these phenomena are completely different, both in their impressions and in their origin.

The phenomenon of ice needles is noticeable in the daytime and at night. In the sunlight they shine in the sky just like ice. At night they appear in the form of hundreds of colored glowing pillars, reflecting the light of the moon and lanterns. They are perfectly visible in the night sky, since they are formed in clear weather.

Another name for this phenomenon is ice dust. In foreign sources it is also called diamond dust. It occurs during the winter frost, when the temperature drops to 10-15 degrees below zero. In recent years, ice dust has been observed more than once in Ufa, Tyumen, Moscow, on the territory of Ukraine and Belarus. Most often, the phenomenon arises in the Arctic regions.

Reasons for education

Ice needles refer to solid sediments and, as a rule, are fixed by meteorologists. These are tiny ice crystals of a hexagonal shape that swirl in the air. Their size does not exceed one millimeter. The layer of the ice curtain reaches from 15 to 350 meters. And the cause of its occurrence is the inversion of temperature.

Usually the temperature of the atmospheric air decreases with altitude, that is, at the very surface of the Earth it is much warmer than hundreds of meters higher. Under certain conditions, layers with different temperatures can be mixed, which manifests itself in the form of various atmospheric phenomena, for example fog.

Ice needles are formed when cold and warm layers are mixed close to the earth's surface. It is important that the air is sufficiently humid. Water vapor from the warm layer cools under the influence of low temperatures and forms ice crystals in the form of asterisks or needles.

Usually this phenomenon does not hinder visibility. If the concentration of ice needles in the atmosphere is too high, then the effect of fog appears. It's called an ice haze. In this case, visibility is less than 10 kilometers.