Chilly Beauty

I woke up to the sun brighter than ever. Looking outside my window, all I could see was white. The sun had reflected off of the ground and directly hit my eyes. Eight inches of snow had fallen overnight. The first thought that popped into my head was "Oh no, it must be freezing outside." Instantly, I could not help but shift my focus from the cold weather to the shimmering view in my front yard. I wondered why my eye was so attached to this particular scene. After pondering for a few seconds, I came up with my own answer to this question: snowflakes.  

Making snowflakes was my favorite project in kindergarten because I could never mess up. My teacher always told me, "No two snowflakes will ever look the same" or "there is no 'right' snowflake." Snowflakes are just pieces of frozen dust in the sky that, by process, became ice crystals. Water vapor freezes onto these ice crystals, as they get closer to the ground. These snowflakes are always symmetrical and six-sided. Each snowflake is ultimately different because they form in different atmospheric conditions and in different temperatures.

I know it is hard to believe, but snowflakes seriously affect every single person. Snowflakes not only brighten your day, but also they help determine the weather forecast. For example, if a certain snowflake changes size and shape as it falls down, it stimulates a change in the weather; the interaction of snowflakes with the radar helps, but this is not enough. Because of mistakes in the size and description of a snowflake, there are countless errors in the forecasting snowfall amount. In other words, you could be promised a snow day, but instead suffer disappointment because the weatherman was studying the wrong snowflake or recorded the wrong data. But there is a solution to this problem: the Triple Camera.

The Triple Camera, developed by Garrett and Cale Fallgatter, from the University of Utah's Technology Commercialization Office, was recently created to speed up and increase the accuracy of snowflake pictures. Today, the weather models do not do a good job at recognizing rain or snow because all of this depends on the sizes and shapes of the snowflakes. This Multi-Angle Snowflake Camera is made up of three cameras that only take black and white images. Thanks to its extremely fast exposure time of 40,000th of a second, it captures all the fast-moving snowflakes without making them blurry. The creation of this camera is not only a great new discovery, but it will also help expand our knowledge on the delicate topic of snowflakes. You can directly watch a live feed of snowflakes falling in the Alta Ski Resort in Utah taken by the Multi- Angle Snowflake Camera.

Now, the next time you look at a snowflake, do not just recognize it for its simple beauty because it plays a much bigger role than that. Snowflakes are not only a sense of happiness, but they also greatly influence our weather forecasts.  

What's UR Rxn?

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 I am a high school student who loves to travel and explore new places. When I explore new places, I explore new ideas. I like looking at simple concepts and finding a deeper meaning in these concepts; this meaning may be a connection or a self-realization. I love playing outside and spending time with my family. If I could live on the beach my whole life, I would.

Instagram: @NADINETAYEB