Not all people love winter, with its frost, icy conditions, and difficult driving conditions. Indeed, winter can be a dangerous and unpleasant season. But she can also be fantastically beautiful. Grab a cup of hot drink, wrap yourself in a blanket, and we will tell you about the most amazing phenomena that occur in the winter.
7. Light poles
These “lightsabers” soaring above the surface of the earth can be mistaken for UFOs from afar. On a frosty night, they are a delightful sight that seems like the work of supernatural powers.
However, science has long been aware of the existence of pillars of light. They appear when light is reflected from tiny ice crystals suspended in air (with a hexagonal cross section or columnar, depending on the angle of the sun or moon). Such crystals usually occur in high cirrus clouds. However, in frost, ice crystals form in the lower atmosphere. Therefore, pillars of light often arise in winter. And their multicolor hue is explained by the lights that they reflect.
It is interesting that such phenomena can occur both in sunny weather and under the moon, depending on the light of which luminary is reflected from ice crystals.
6. Snow storm
This is a meteorological phenomenon in which, during a snowstorm in a summertime, thunder rumbles and lightnings sparkle.
According to weather forecasters, snow thunderstorms occur when cold atmospheric fronts invade a warm air mass. The speed of movement of such fronts is, on average, 40 km / h.
When, in an unstable atmosphere, cold air comes into contact with warm air, a sharp temperature drop occurs (up to several tens of degrees at an altitude of several kilometers). Because of this, thunder and lightning arise, and in addition to heavy rainfall.
Snowstorm is a rare event for Russia. It was observed in Novosibirsk, in December 2015, in Novorossiysk in January 2012, in the capital in December 1995 and in the same month in 2011. However, in Murmansk, a snow storm occurs, on average, once a year.
5. Pancake ice
A strange sight can sometimes be observed in winter: the river is covered by circles that reach up to 3 meters across. These circles look like round pizza or huge pancakes, but they do not consist of dough, but of ice up to ten centimeters thick.
Experts say that such an ice pizza is formed when the process of freezing water is interrupted by its excitement, and patches of ice collide and rub against the edges, erasing sharp corners.
These pancake-like formations are most often found in Antarctica, but can occur in any large body of water.
4. Hoarfrost
On a cold day on shrubs and trees you can see a thin layer of small ice crystals, similar to the beard of Santa Claus.
Hoarfrost is created similar to dew. At negative temperatures, the contact of water vapor molecules with a branch or other object leads to their transition from a gaseous to a solid state. This causes the appearance of many cirrus ice crystals. The more moisture is in the air, the thicker the frost will be.
3. Frozen Frogs
The third place in the top 7 amazing winter phenomena of nature went to the usual, at first glance, frog. Different animals have physiological characteristics that help them survive in the cold. Bears, for example, fall into hibernation, but the tree frog has an even simpler strategy: it just freezes.
For winter, tree frogs seek recesses in the ground. They fill it with leaves and twigs that provide heat, burrow into the shelter and fall into hibernation. The frog’s heart stops beating, the organs cease to function, and the blood freezes.
If we were talking about another living creature, then such a freezing would damage the body's tissues, destroying the fragile structures of cells. After all, dehydrated cells can no longer function.
But the tree frog avoids this life-threatening dilemma. Before hibernation, a large amount of glucose is produced in her body, which is then transported to cells and acts as antifreeze.
Urea levels also increase, which contributes to additional cell protection. While the cells themselves do not freeze, water freezes in the skin, eyes and muscles, making the frog as hard as a stone.
When spring comes, the amphibian thaws without the slightest damage to health.
2. A hole in the sky
Only in winter can one observe a phenomenon that is called Skypunch in English literature (as well as the Fallstreak hole and the Hole punch cloud). It seems that the hand of a giant living in the sky stretched down and made a hole in the clouds so that you can better see what is happening below.
A similar phenomenon occurs only when water droplets in the clouds are in a supercooled position. In the absence of freezing nuclei, water droplets can remain in a liquid state at temperatures up to minus 40 degrees Celsius.
Under the influence of an external force, some of the drops of water turn into ice and begin a chain reaction of freezing and falling down of the rest of the drops. Because of this, in a matter of seconds, a large circle forms in the clouds.
Studies have confirmed that passing aircraft are responsible for initiating the droplet crystallization process. When airplanes fly through the cloud, the air cools as it passes through the wings and propeller of the airplane.
1. Deadly icicles
If you thought about an ordinary icicle that could fall on your head and kill, you were mistaken. Underwater icicles that form in the frosty conditions of the Arctic and Antarctica are no less deadly.
Here's how it goes.
- The interaction of water with cold air masses leads to the formation of ice on the surface of the water.
- Salt flows from ice, which increases the salinity of the water and lowers its freezing point. The density of water also increases.
- The salted brine located under the ice is in contact with the ice and is cooled to its temperature.
- As a result, there is an underwater analogue of stalactite - Brainicle (Death Finger). In shape, it resembles a tentacle or an ice tube that stretches in the direction of the seabed.
- When the giant "tube" reaches the bottom, it begins to grow, instantly freezing (and killing) everything that concerns.
“They (brainicles) look like upturned cacti that are blown out of glass, as if from Dr. Seuss' imagination. They are incredibly fragile and can break at the slightest touch, ”explains Andrew Thurber, a professor at the University of Oregon.
Nevertheless, the icy fingers of death can open the secrets of life to scientists. Bruno Escricano, a researcher at the Spanish Research Institute in Bilbao, claims that inside the sea ice is a high concentration of chemical compounds, lipids and fats that cover the inside of the structure. They can act as a primitive membrane - one of the conditions necessary for life. These components may also contain the ingredients necessary for obtaining DNA. Of course, it’s unlikely that Captain America will be able to get out of such ice, but, perhaps, the brinicals will be able to explain to scientists what forms of life will be able to arise on planets ice-bound.
