Which best describes an air mass?
An air mass is a large volume of air in the atmosphere that is mostly uniform in temperature and moisture. Air masses can extend thousands of kilometers across the surface of the Earth, and can reach from ground level to the stratosphere—16 kilometers (10 miles) into the atmosphere.
What are the characteristics of an air mass that forms over the Gulf of Mexico?
Maritime Tropical Warm, humid air masses form over tropical oceans. Maritime tropical air masses that form over the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean move first into the southeastern United States. These air masses then move north and northeast, where they influence weather in the central and eastern United States.
Where do air masses come from?
An air mass forms whenever the atmosphere remains in contact with a large, relatively uniform land or sea surface for a time sufficiently long to acquire the temperature and moisture properties of that surface. The Earth’s major air masses originate in polar or subtropical latitudes.
Which two air masses have the greatest impact on the Pacific coast?
Maritime polar air masses, abbreviated mP on weather maps, tend to dominate the Pacific coast region. These air masses form over a cold ocean current in the northern Pacific Ocean. Although mP air masses originate at northerly latitudes, they do not feature as cold of air as continental polar air masses.
What happens when two types of air masses meet?
When two air masses meet together, the boundary between the two is called a weather front. At a front, the two air masses have different densities, based on temperature, and do not easily mix. One air mass is lifted above the other, creating a low pressure zone.
What happens when air masses interact?
When two different air masses come into contact, they don’t mix. They push against each other along a line called a front. When a warm air mass meets a cold air mass, the warm air rises since it is lighter. At high altitude it cools, and the water vapor it contains condenses.
What two factors determine air masses?
Air masses have fairly uniform temperature and moisture content in horizontal direction (but not uniform in vertical). Air masses are characterized by their temperature and humidity properties. The properties of air masses are determined by the the underlying surface properties where they originate.
What is the relationship between air masses and storms?
Storms arise if the air mass and the region it moves over have different characteristics. For example, when a colder air mass moves over warmer ground, the bottom layer of air is heated. That air rises, forming clouds, rain, and sometimes thunderstorms.
How do we name air masses?
Air masses are NAMED by their temperature and humidity characteristics. The humidity characteristic is derived from the type of surface over which the air mass sits. It will be called a CONTINENTAL air mass which is designated by the small letter c. In the name of an air mass, this humidity description is given first.
What is the air mass classification system and how is it used?
A system used to identify and to characterize the different air masses according to a basic scheme. A number of systems have been proposed, but the Bergeron classification has been the most widely accepted.
What are the importance of air masses?
Weather can be changed or affected by many factors but air masses is most important factor to controls the weather. We can easily understand about weather changes from air masses by its name . Maritime air masses originate from the Ocean so it produce moist weather.
What are the 6 types of air masses?
This gives us six total types of air masses on Earth: maritime arctic (mA), maritime polar (mP), maritime tropical (mT); and continental arctic (cA), continental polar (cP) and continental tropical (cT).
Which air masses are seasonally specific?
There are four primary air masses that impact the weather in North America year round and two air masses that are seasonal. There are four primary air masses that effect the weather in the United States. These are the Continental Polar, Continental Tropical, Maritime Polar, and Maritime Tropical Air masses.
What is the meaning of air masses?
: a body of air extending hundreds or thousands of miles horizontally and sometimes as high as the stratosphere and maintaining as it travels nearly uniform conditions of temperature and humidity at any given level.
What are the main types of air masses answers?
The 4 major air masses are continental polar (cP), continental tropical (cT), marine polar (mP) and marine tropical (mT). Generally, continental air masses are drier than marine air masses, and polar air masses are cooler than tropical air masses.