Ice crystal observations and the degree of riming in winter precipitation

Since snow crystals provide information on the processes leading to their formation and growth, their observation gives insight to the microphysics of cloud and precipitation. The capture of supercooled cloud droplets by snow crystals (riming) forms an important link between precipitation and cloudwater and thus plays an important role in wet deposition. In the project ‘Winter Precipitation at Mount Rigi’ ice crystals are collected at two stations at different elevations. The shape, size and degree of riming of each crystal are analyzed for more than 10000 crystals. Differences in the degree of riming of the crystals between the higher and the lower station are discussed. With the aid of Doppler radar data the location of snow crystal origin is estimated. Furthermore a relationship between the degree of riming of snow crystals and the vertical Doppler velocities is established.