RUI: Scanning electron microscopy and multiscale modeling of mesoscopically rough faceted ice

美国国家科学基金会化学部的环境化学科学项目支持普吉特海湾大学Steven Neshyba教授的研究。该研究项目支持对粗糙结晶冰的表面形貌进行实验室和理论研究。众所周知，当大气云中的冰晶（如卷云）形成粗糙的表面时，云倾向于反射更多的光。关于这种粗糙化的关键细节仍然难以捉摸。这项本科院校（RUI）奖的研究将在可变压力扫描电子显微镜下生长冰晶，这将允许在光学显微镜无法实现的分辨率下表征表面形态。这些研究将评估粗化对温度、蒸汽过饱和度和冰-蒸汽界面杂质变化的响应，并将为此类晶体的短波散射特性建模提供基础。在理论方面，将发展一种综合的分子动力学和反应扩散方法来模拟内脏冰-气界面动力学。这些模拟结果将用于测试关于粗糙冰的形成机制、形态特性和光散射后果的假设。普吉特海湾大学的本科生以及Sammamish高中的科学教师将与捷克共和国科学院有机化学和生物化学研究所的研究人员合作，作为共同研究者和科学出版物的共同作者参与这项研究。高中教师将获得资助，在内希巴博士的实验室进行研究。这将有助于他们在课堂上开发基于问题的学习模块。

The Environmental Chemical Sciences Program in the Chemistry Division at the National Science Foundation supports the research of Professor Steven Neshyba at the University of Puget Sound. The research project supports laboratory and theoretical studies into the surface morphology of rough crystalline ice. It is known that when ice crystals in atmospheric clouds (such as cirrus clouds) develop rough surfaces, the clouds tend to reflect more light. Critical details about this roughening remain elusive. This Research in an Undergraduate Institution (RUI) award will grow ice crystals inside a variable pressure scanning electron microscope, which will allow characterization of surface morphology at a resolution not possible using light microscopy. These investigations will assess the response of roughening to variations in temperature, vapor supersaturation, and impurities at the ice-vapor interface, and will provide the basis for modeling the shortwave scattering properties of such crystals. In terms of theory, an integrated molecular dynamics and reaction-diffusion approach to simulating the dynamics of viscinal ice-vapor interfaces will be developed. These simulation results will be used to test hypotheses about the mechanism of formation, morphological properties, and light-scattering consequences, of rough ice. Undergraduates at the University of Puget Sound, as well as science teachers from Sammamish High School, will be engaged in the research as co-investigators and co-authors of scientific publications, and through collaboration with researchers at the Institute for Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry at the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic. High school teachers will be funded to do research in Dr. Neshyba's laboratory. This will help them to develop problem-based learning modules in their classrooms.