Snow Crystals: Natural and Artificial

This book is an account of more than 20 years of physical investigations on snow that were conducted at Hokkaido University in Sapporo, Japan, on nearby Asari, and on a slope of Mount Takachi, near the center of Hokkaido Island. The author presents a general classification of snow crystals, recognizing seven distinct phyla. These vary from needles and columns, through fernlike crystals developed in one plane, to combinations of column and plane crystals, colutnnar crystals with extended side planes, rimed crystals (those with cloud particles attached), and a miscellaneous category of irregular crystals. He describes how this relatively simple approach to the study of snow crystals compelled him to seek knowledge of their physical properties, which in turn forced him into their artificial production in order to understand how they grow in nature.