Managing Systematic Errors in Ice Crystal Growth Experiments

We describe how surface interactions can affect the growth of ice crystal facets in contact with a substrate by lowering the normal nucleation barrier on the ice surface. We also describe how the resulting enhanced growth rates can produce systematic errors even when measuring the growth of facets not contacting the substrate. From an analysis of the diffusion dynamics we then develop a simple procedure for approximately correcting ice growth data, thus substantially reducing these systematic errors. We have found this technique to be quite useful for interpreting ice growth data and extracting the intrinsic attachment coefficients of ice surfaces.

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