What's in That Snow?

A microscopic tour of the surprising things that fall out of the winter sky and accumulate on a remote, high altitude snowfield.
These dusts and biological aerosols help nucleate snowflakes dropped during a snowstorm, or they may have been blown in by high winds from far away.
Darkfield microscopy provides striking visuals of the myriad crystalline grains, fungal threads, and tiny bacteria that hitch a ride on the snowflakes that eventually feed our rivers and mountains as well as our homes and gardens.