New Scientist - USA (2021-12-18)

The back pages

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These articles are

posted each week at

newscientist.com/maker

What you need

Access to Snowflake ID,
via zooniverse.org

Paper and scissors for
cutting out your own
snowflakes (if the mood
takes you)

BING CROSBY dreamed of a

white Christmas. This December,

I’m dreaming of categorising

snowflakes. All in the name

of science, of course.

White Christmas or not, you

too can get up close and personal

with snowflakes and contribute to

climate research by taking part in

the online Snowflake ID project. It

invites volunteers to flick through

high-resolution snowflake photos

taken around the world – from

Alaska to the Swiss Alps to

Antarctica – and help classify them

by characteristics, such as their

size and shape. You can access

the project via the Zooniverse

citizen science platform.

Snowflakes come in many

forms (see page 58). This makes

them useful to climate scientists.

The precise shape of a snowflake

can provide information about the

atmospheric conditions in which

it formed and, in turn, about

how Earth’s climate is changing.

“Characteristics such as size,

shape and density are important

for accurate forecasting of severe

weather and global climate

change,” says Annie McElvein,

the project coordinator for

Snowflake ID, which is run

by the University of Utah.

At the same time, global

warming is contributing to

changes in snowfall patterns.

“Arctic snowfall has diminished

in recent years due to global

warming, the temperatures are

simply too high for snow to form,”

says McElvein. “Conversely, as

the Arctic warms, some regions

are cooling off.” Indeed, there is

The secrets of climate change are hidden in flakes of snow, but

scientists need your help to classify them, says Layal Liverpool

Citizen science

Snowflake spotters sought

evidence that global warming

is contributing to changes in

atmospheric wind currents that

may lead to cooling and more

intense snowfall in some areas.

The project’s customised

cameras capture high-resolution

photographs of falling snowflakes,

from three different angles. These

generate millions of images – far

more than the Snowflake ID team

can analyse themselves. Happily,

more than 2000 volunteers

have participated in the project

so far, and their classifications

are helping to train a machine

learning algorithm to recognise

and categorise different

snowflake types automatically.

As a volunteer, you will be asked

to spot key features of the flakes,

such as little bumps on the

snowflake surface called rime.

These bumps form when a liquid
cloud droplet is below freezing
temperature and instantly freezes
onto a snowflake that collides
with it. The more rime there is,
the more the particle resembles
a fluffy snowball as opposed to
a hexagonal star.
Learn more about snowflake
structure and find instructions
on how to cut out your own
realistic snowflakes from paper
by visiting the Snowflake ID web
page. This and the rest of the
project make for great holiday
activities for snowflake
enthusiasts young and old. As
McElvein puts it: “This project
Citizen science typically is fun for anyone aged 8 to 80.” ❚
appears every four weeks

Next issue
Stargazing at home

Layal Liverpool is a science
journalist based in Berlin.
She believes everyone can
be a scientist, including you.
@layallivs

Feedback

A look back at 2021

with our annual

Feedby awards p88

Puzzle and

quiz answers

Find out how

well you did p86

Quiz of the year

Can you remember

all the biggest science

news of 2021? p84

Puzzles

Try our cryptic

crossword and

festive puzzles p82

Twisteddoodles

for New Scientist

Picturing the lighter

side of life p88

18/25 December 2021 | New Scientist | 81