Why Droplets Grow Lab Report

There are small particles in the air called aerosols. They are found in fog and smoke. These particles become larger in size if two processes occur. The first process is water vapor accumulating onto a particle. The next process is cool, rising air supporting the particle. Once the aerosol particles are large enough, they become cloud droplets that will have a different mechanism of growing.
Cloud droplets grow differently because they are larger in size. Instead, they grow by a new process called collision coalescence. This process is more efficient because the droplets will grow more quickly. The larger the droplet, the more effective this process will be. Collision coalescence describes two interactions of cloud droplets. They can either bounce off …show more content…
This is known as homogeneous freezing. In other words, water droplets are able to freeze without another substance. Ice crystals can also form at higher temperatures; however, this can only happen if there are other frozen particles present with the water droplets. These particles will make the water droplets cold enough to freeze. This is known as heterogeneous freezing, which simply means that water droplets freeze with the help of another substance or substances. In this case, the substances are frozen particles. When frozen particles collide together, aggregation happens. Aggregation is when frozen particles combine into one particle. The particles that are formed come in different sizes leading up to frozen precipitation. The size of the frozen particle depends on the type of precipitation. Particles less than five millimeters are ice crystals and particles greater than five millimeters are either snow, snow pellets or hail. If ice particles collide with another type of droplet or particle, it is known as riming. In other words, other droplets besides water droplets are able to