Order to disorder: Scientists take close look at icy surfaces with spectroscopy, simulation and machine learning

Much like a tongue freezes to a frigid metal pole, ice can speed up the adsorption, or stickiness, of molecules. An icy surface can also cause molecules to degrade in the presence of light, releasing trace gases. Before researchers can measure these reactions and incorporate their impacts in global atmospheric models, researchers first need to understand the structure of ice itself.