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In part three of our Weather Extra series on snow, Ryan travels to the UND Atmospheric Science Department in Grand Forks to find out about ice crystals. Tonighthow scientists catch and study the smallest pieces of ice in the sky. In the past 2 weeks we have shown you how nature creates snowflakes in the atmosphere. And how by using a combination of very cold water and biological materials, ski resorts create their own type of snow. This week, we bring it all together with how scientists create, capture and study real ice crystals. The great thing about being a science department in an aerospace school, is the toys you get to use for research. The department did have a small jet for research, but now it doesn't fly. The department is working on getting a new one. The most interesting instrument on this jet aircraft is a camera that takes pictures of ice crystals in clouds. Here's how it works. The Jet flies through clouds with a scientific research crew on board. Underneath is a kind of tube which air and hopefully ice crystals flow into. Inside this tube are three lasers two of which are shaped into a .5 millimeter thick and 2.4 millimeter wide ribbon. The third laser, the red beam is an imaging laser for the digital camera. Cloud droplets and ice particles flow through the tube. When an ice crystal breaks the beam of both the yellow and orange lasers, the red imaging laser pulses kind of like a flashbulb, and snaps a photo of the ice crystal. Back in the lab, the scientists at UND can look over the thousands of images caught during a flight. By looking at the different shapes and formations of these tiny crystals, scientists can tell what the conditions were like in the cloud at that time, such as temperature and available moisture, knowing what goes on in clouds and how ice crystals form help in many areas of meteorology, as well as industry. Without the knowledge of how ice crystals form and the ingredients needed places like Huff Hills could just be waiting for snow from the sky. If you have any ideas for a weather extra, log on to www.kxnet.com/weatherextra and send an e-mail to weather12@kxnet.com.