Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • NEWS AND VIEWS

Clues to rain formation found in droplet images

X-ray and optical imaging have revealed the intricate process through which droplets freeze during the formation of rain. The results could help to explain how clouds are able to produce enough ice particles to make rain.
  1. Thomas Leisner

    1. Thomas Leisner is at the Institute of Meteorology and Climate Research, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, 76344 Eggenstein-Leopoldshafen, Germany.

    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed  Google Scholar

The first few drips of a rain shower are usually a sign that ‘supercooled’ droplets in the cloud above have started to freeze. Supercooled water exists as a liquid below the normal freezing point of water, and the freezing of these droplets has a key role in the process of rain formation. Writing in Nature, Kalita et al.1 have imaged this process with exquisite time resolution, enabling them to analyse the evolving crystalline structure of the ice in real time. Their observations provide a way of calibrating and improving models that help to explain the physics of clouds.

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Learn more

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Nature 620, 494-495 (2023)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-023-02353-7

References

  1. Kalita, A. et al. Nature 620, 557–561 (2023).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Mossop, S. C., Ono, A. & Wishart, E. R. Q. J. R. Meteorol. Soc. 96, 487–508 (1970).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Hallett, J. & Mossop, S. C. Nature 249, 26–28 (1974).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Rangno, A. L. & Hobbs, P. V. Q. J. R. Meteorol. Soc. 117, 207–241 (1991).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Korolev, A. & Leisner, T. Atmos. Chem. Phys. 20, 11767–11797 (2020).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Kleinheins, J., Kiselev, A., Keinert, A., Kind, M. & Leisner, T. J. Atmos. Sci. 78, 1703–1713 (2021).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Keinert, A., Spannagel, D., Leisner, T. & Kiselev, A. J. Atmos. Sci. 77, 2959–2967 (2020).

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Competing Interests

The author declares no competing interests.

Subjects

Latest on:

Nature Careers

Jobs

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing

Search

Advanced search

Quick links