= Hexagonal ice crystal anisotropy
{title2=$\gamma(\phi+\pi/3)=\gamma(\phi)$}
Ordinary atmospheric snow crystals are predominantly hexagonal <ice> Ih. Rotating by sixty degrees around its crystallographic axis leaves the equilibrium orientation dependence unchanged, giving six equivalent basal-plane directions. <Temperature> and supersaturation determine whether plates, columns or <crystal dendrites> develop. <Dendritic growth of a snowflake> needs this crystal symmetry as well as the diffusion instability.
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