Pancakes, donuts and ice necklace: Ukrainian polar explorers show unique winter phenomena in Antarctica

Ukrainian scientists from the Antarctic station "Akademik Vernadsky" have published a photo report with rare ice and snow phenomena that they recorded while working on the icy continent. Some of them can be seen not only in Antarctica, but also in Ukraine - in real winter conditions.

This was reported by the National Antarctic Research Center.

The center noted that names like "pancakes", "donuts" or "cornices" are not a joke, but scientific terms used to describe natural formations of snow and ice.

"Pancakes, donuts, cornices are not a random shopping list of our communicators, but the names of interesting phenomena that Ukrainian polar explorers photographed," the report says.

Among the published photos are the so-called snow "donuts", which are formed by the combination of two layers of snow, a temperature slightly above zero, and wind that rolls the snow into rolls. Inside such forms, the snow quickly weathers, forming a characteristic hole.

The polar explorers also showed ice "pancakes" - rounded pieces of ice with a diameter of several tens of centimeters to several meters, which cover the surface of the water and resemble water lilies. They are formed either from an ice-snow mass at unstable temperatures, or as a result of the destruction of a thin ice crust by waves.

Scientists paid special attention to crystalline frost, which is formed from water vapor during fog at temperatures below −10 degrees, as well as snow cornices - protrusions on mountain peaks and the edges of glaciers that arise due to the transfer of snow by the wind.

Another spectacular phenomenon was the "ice necklace" - a combination of melting snow and a sudden blizzard, when meltwater freezes in the form of icicles, and snow dust sticks to them, forming icy "beads".

"We are sharing a selection of these ice and snow wonders. After all, some of them can be seen not only in Antarctica, but also in Ukraine - while the real winter lasts," the National Antarctic Science Center emphasized.

As a reminder, Ukrainian meteorologists from the "Akademik Vernadsky" station recorded a new climate anomaly - the water temperature has never dropped below the freezing point this year.