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The homogeneous nucleation of supercooled water: results from a
new equation of state
Christopher A. Jeffery and Philip H. Austin
Journal of Geophysical Research, 1997, 102, 25,269-25,283.
Abstract
A series of laboratory and aircraft measurements have indicated that
supercooled liquid water exists to temperatures as low as -70
$\degc$. These measurements also show that classical nucleation theory,
using standard values for the thermodynamic properties of supercooled
water, underestimates the nucleation rate of ice in liquid water at
large supercoolings. New theoretical estimates for this homogeneous
nucleation rate are presented, based on a new analytic
equation of state for liquid water. The new equation of state, which
is accurate over a pressure range of 3000 atmospheres and a
temperature range of 1200 K, is used to infer the latent heat of
melting, liquid water density, and ice/water surface energy of
supercooled water. Predictions of the nucleation rate and the
homogeneous freezing temperature made by this equation of state are in
agreement with observations at temperatures as cold as -70 $\degc$ and
at pressures as high as 2000 atmospheres. These results indicate that
it is not necessary to invoke a phase transition at -45 $\degc$ to
explain aircraft and laboratory observations of homogeneous ice nucleation in
supercooled water clouds.
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