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Thursday, October 28, 2010

Photo: Mysterious "Rain on Snow" Events Tracked in Arctic


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Musk-oxen huddle together during a snowstorm in Canada's frigid Northwest Territories.

A strange phenomenon known as a "rain on snow" event, in which warm rain freezes into a solid layer of ice on the ground in winter, killed off a quarter of the region's musk-oxen population in 2003.

Scientists are still working to figure out why and when these elusive incidents occur.

Photograph by Norbert Rosing/NGS