How does a water droplet freeze on a surface without going into too much detail?

[thephysicsman]

Is it correct to say that a water droplet on a surface freezes by heat transfer from the droplet through the water-substrate interface, and a subsequent nucleation process whereby minute particles on the surface (or the surface roughness) acts as nucleation centers?

Do you know of a website/article that explains this without going in too much detail?

 

[klimatos]

Is it correct to say that a water droplet on a surface freezes by heat transfer from the droplet through the water-substrate interface, and a subsequent nucleation process whereby minute particles on the surface (or the surface roughness) acts as nucleation centers?

Sometimes. The heat loss does not have to be conductive. It can also be radiative, loss of enthalpy via vaporization, or any combination of the three. Icing nuclei are good, and tend to speed things up, but they are not necessary. Sometimes all it takes is the presence of sufficient icing ions (H₁₅O₇⁺). Freezing is a complex phenomena, and does not have simple answers.