Chapter 11 Air Masses and Fronts exam study guide fully solved & verified for accuracy 2024
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Course
Air Masses and Fronts
Institution
Air Masses And Fronts
Air Mass
-an extremely large body of air whose properties of temperature and humidity are fairly similar in any horizontal direction at any given altitude
-a single air mass may cover more than a million square kilometers
Source Regions
-extensive areas of essentially uniform surface cond...
Chapter 11 Air Masses and Fronts exam study guide fully solved & verified for accuracy 2024
Air Mass - answer -an extremely large body of air whose properties of temperature and humidity are fairly similar in any horizontal direction at any given altitude
-a single air mass may cover more than a million square kilometers
Source Regions - answer -extensive areas of essentially uniform surface conditions over land or water, typically of large-scale air subsidence and lateral divergence, where air masses develop their initial properties
How are air masses classified? - answer -according to temperature and humidity, both of which are uniform in any horizontal direction
-air masses originating in cold latitudes are classified by the letter P (for polar), those formed in tropics are classified by T (tropical)
Continental Arctic (cA) - answer - classifies air masses in extremely cold temperatures
-continental air masses are characterized by dry air near the surface while maritime air masses are moist & arctic air masses are extremely cold
Continental Polar (cP) - answer -cold temperatures and little moisture
-those who live in northern portions of the United States expect cold weather during the winter months. These conditions usually result from the invasion of cold arctic air masses that originate from the snow covered regions of northern Canada
Lake-Effect Snow - answer produced during cooler atmospheric conditions when a cold air mass moves across long expanses of warmer lake water, warming the lower layer of air which picks up water vapor from the lake, rises up through the colder air above, freezes and is deposited on the leeward (downwind)
shores Cumulus Humilis - answer cumuliform cloud with little vertical extent that is commonly referred to as "fair weather cumulus" and common in the summer
Maritime Polar (mP) - answer -are cool, moist, and unstable air masses
-occurs when winter cP air moves over a region such as the NE Pacific, picking up some warmth and moisture from the warmer ocean
Maritime Tropical (mT) - answer -warm, moist, usually unstable air masses
Atmospheric River - answer -are relatively narrow regions in the atmosphere that are responsible for most of the horizontal transport of water vapor outside of the tropics
-transports huge amounts of moisture far above the ground from one place to another
Continental Tropic (cT) - answer hot, dry, stable air aloft with unstable surface air that results in frequent dust devils
Fronts - answer -the transition zone between two air masses of different densities -since density is usually associated with temperatures, these separate air masses at different temperatures as well as humidities
Stationary Fronts - answer -forms when a cold front or warm front stops moving
-happens when two masses of air are pushing against each other but neither is powerful enough to move the other
Cold Fronts - answer -the boundary of an advancing mass of cold air, in particular the trailing edge of the warm sector of a low-pressure system
-represents a zone where cold, dry stable polar air replaces warm, moist conditionally unstable air
Pressure Tendency - answer the character and amount of atmospheric pressure change during a specified period of time
Squall Line - answer a narrow band of high winds and storms associated with a cold front
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