Researchers have captured the first-ever footage of individual snow particles moving inside the blinding powder cloud of a massive avalanche.
March 31, 2026
Original Paper
First Direct Observations of Internal Flow Structures in a Powder Snow Avalanche: Turbulence, Instability and Particle Distribution
arXiv · 2603.28144
The Takeaway
Scientists have historically been unable to see inside the 'airborne' layer of an avalanche because the thick powder blocks all light. By using high-speed imaging to track individual grains in a natural avalanche, researchers can finally see the internal turbulence and 'waves' that make these flows so destructive.
From the abstract
Powder snow avalanches are highly dynamic, multiphase gravity-driven flows typically composed of a dense basal layer overlain by airborne layers in which snow particles are suspended within a turbulent air phase. Despite extensive work on related systems such as pyroclastic density currents and turbidity currents, all gravity current communities face a fundamental limitation: the lack of direct, high-resolution particle-scale field data. Here, we present the first direct optical observations of