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

国家科学基金会化学部的环境化学科学项目支持普吉特湾大学Steven Neshyba教授的研究。该研究项目支持对粗糙结晶冰表面形态的实验室和理论研究。众所周知，当大气云(如卷云)中的冰晶形成粗糙的表面时，云往往会反射更多的光线。关于这一粗化的关键细节仍然难以捉摸。这项本科生研究所(RUI)奖将在可变压力扫描电子显微镜内生长冰晶，这将允许以光学显微镜无法实现的分辨率表征表面形态。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，并将为模拟此类晶体的短波散射特性提供基础。在理论方面，将发展一种分子动力学和反应扩散相结合的方法来模拟粘性冰-蒸汽界面的动力学。这些模拟结果将被用来检验关于粗糙冰的形成机制、形态特征和光散射后果的假设。普吉特湾大学的本科生以及萨马米什高中的科学教师将作为科学出版物的联合调查员和共同作者，并通过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，参与这项研究。高中教师将获得资助，在Neshyba博士的实验室进行研究。这将帮助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.