Joanna Carver, reporter
(Image: Matthias Wietz/IGERT/NSF)
Season's regards from an icy meadow in the Arctic, but it's no winter wonderland and please don't dash out into it. These frost flowers generally form in spring, and only on thin ice, so you'd quickly find yourself in freezing water in a sparsely populated area.
Frost flowers form in calm conditions when the atmosphere is much colder than the underlying ice. The ice vaporises into dry air and then refreezes into these beautiful frosty blossoms, which concentrate salt and bacteria from the ice.
Frost flowers might also be a source of aerosols in the polar atmosphere. Researchers at the University of Leeds, UK, suggested in 2006 that the frost flowers draw up sea salt from a brine layer just above the ice, and when the wind breaks them up, they become aerosols. It's suggested they even contribute to ozone depletion.
Lily-pad-like formations like these are common in polar regions in springtime, giving those areas a little cheer for a bit - a rest from just being the lands where it's forever winter.
Out-of-season's greetings from the Arctic frost flowers
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Out-of-season's greetings from the Arctic frost flowers
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Out-of-season's greetings from the Arctic frost flowers
