Light scattering from impurity enhanced liquid layers in polycrystalline ice

Impurity enhanced grain boundary premelting underlies a wide range of geophysical phenomena throughout the cryosphere. In particular, it is known that when water droplets freeze in the atmosphere they are highly polycrystalline and impurities are rejected into grain boundaries. The predicted character and sensitivity of grain boundaries to impurities close to the melting point precludes the use of standard techniques for imaging the interface. Unlike their larger more macroscopic relatives such as veins (3 grain intersections) and nodes (4 grain intersections), grain boundaries do not submit to optical microscopy. However, using an experimental light scattering method grain boundary changes can be measured as a function of thermodynamic variables. Accurate analysis of the light scattering data generated using this method requires a full theory of light propagation through the grain boundary layer straddled by ice crystals. Here we present a theory for light scattering from such a boundary, experimental data using NaCl as a dopant, and dicsuss atmospheric implications from the troposphere to the stratosphere.