Snow Rollers: Something Not Electric

[Lloyd]

http://www.wrh.noaa.gov/otx/photo_galle ... ollers.php

On the evening of March 31st, 2009, Tim Tevebaugh was driving home from work east of Craigmont in the southern Idaho Panhandle (see map below). Across the rolling hay fields, Tim saw a very unusual phenomenon. The snow rollers that he took pictures of are extremely rare because of the unique combination of snow, wind, temperature and moisture needed to create them. They form with light but sticky snow and strong (but not too strong) winds. Some snow rollers are formed by gravity (i.e. rolling down a hill), but in this case, the snow rollers were generated by the wind. These snow rollers formed during the day as they weren't present in the morning on Tim's drive to work.
Based on estimations from Tim as well as the blades of grass in the picture, most of the snow rollers were about 18" in height, while the largest rollers were about 2 feet tall.

* These snow rollers seem quite unusual, but they are one unusual type of things that is NOT formed electrically. Right?
* Sure, snow itself is produced by electrical forces, and so is the wind. But the rolling up of snow like this isn't electrical; is it?
* Well, okay, the polarized nature of water molecules that make up snow flakes is electrical, but it's no more electrical than the snowballing effect of a snowball rolling down a steep hill; is it?
* Now don't get the idea that snow rollers are the same as snowballing snowballs. Snow rollers, remember, are produced by wind blowing snow with just the right snow stickiness, not by snowballs rolling down a hill.

[flyingcloud]

that's really neat lloyd

i get the connection with wave form in a viscosity increased form of water/sand

as all particles within a wave motion move in a circle or roll

this allows for visualization quite prominently

individual particle motion in wave creation across water in various states, fluid dynamics, turbulence, and the wave

thanks

[Lloyd]

* Hey, FC, speaking of sand and waves, that reminds me of what's been discussed before on this forum about the discovery in recent years that the wind-blown sand in the Sahara was found to be electrically charged, which allows the sand to levitate to some extent via magnetic repulsion, kind of like maglev trains. So maybe that's also involved with these snow rollers. I had also pointed out on the forum a year or more ago that the snow cover on Greenland has a striped pattern, similar to the stripes in the Sahara desert. And these stripes are easily observable on Google Maps, satellite view, and similar maps. I had suggested that electrical forces were responsible for these stripes. Similar stripe patterns are found on Mars and some moons.

[flyingcloud]

The snow would have to seperate from itself to start the roll
the friction alone could influence charge, albeit statically, could be a pressure gradiant influence as well, like the wind over a wing

probably standing up like the hairs on my neck
like vibrating water, or those infinitely tall walls equation
those little tiny silica particles can make sparks when they collide

http://www.ns.umich.edu/htdocs/releases ... hp?id=6256

Electric sand findings could lead to better climate models
ANN ARBOR, Mich.—Wind isn't acting alone in the geological process behind erosion, sand dunes and airborne dust particles called aerosols. The other culprit is electricity. By taking both factors into account, researchers at the University of Michigan have developed a new model that matches real-world measurements of "saltation" better than the decades-old classical theory.

Saltation is the process of wind blowing grains of sand across a landscape, sending them bouncing against the ground and each other. The bouncing motion of the saltating grains on the soil bed kicks dust aerosols into the air.

[Lloyd]

* FC:

those little tiny silica particles can make sparks when they collide

* I think our E.U. theorists would strongly dispute that. The same sort of claim is made about dust particles in dust devils and about water and ice molecules in thunderclouds etc. I think the TPODs and the forum discussions have made an excellent case that such a claim is very naive and myopic. Charge is not acquired significantly by collisions, but by the charge in the Earth's capacitor.
* See for example: http://www.thunderbolts.info/tpod/2004/ ... acitor.htm as well as most any of these:
http://thunderbolts.info/tpod/00subjectx.htm#Weather

[flyingcloud]

I play with quartz a lot and I make sparks all over the place. Especially sliding large ones around. I make sparks just hitting rocks together.

What am I missing. The spark occurs before the collision?

This spark making ability only applies to big rocks?

ok I think I see the discrepency, charge does not accumulate by collisions, however I would contend that the collision and processes that a create said spark is a powerful catalyst for a system with ever decreasing electrical/atomic stabitility.

[mague]

You know its mechanical. Snow is entangled crystals. The wind either picked up a leaf or twig or a small piece frozen snow and rolled it until the roll became to heavy for the wind.