Unfortunately for snow enthusiasts, the model found that the fragile needle-like ice crystals connecting the two layers can be broken easily and separated by the weight of new snow or a skier.
His model predicts that these clusters will change size at the temperatures at which newly forming snow alters from flower mode to prism mode, and vice versa.
All the other features are perfect too, and the current model is even better than my originals: extra-long cinch-down gauntlets mean no snow can get inside, even in the deepest powder.
This relatively minor shift, the model found, still produces enough energy to initiate a wave-like pulse of crystal-shattering snow separation that quickly propagates uphill and leads to a major release of the upper layer.