What Is Air Mass Modification

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What Is Air Mass Modification?

The change of characteristics of an air mass as it moves away from its region of origin.Jan 26 2012

What are the 4 modifications of air masses?

Generally there are four types of air masses that can be further categorized with specifics of where they occur and over water or land. The 4 types of air masses are polar tropical continental and maritime. Their classification depends on their location where they are formed.

What are some ways the air masses can be modified?

As air masses move from one place to another they are modified. Their properties temperature moisture and stability change as the air masses exchange heat and moisture with the underlying surface. There are two primary methods of modifying an air mass: heat exchanges with the surface and mechanical lifting.

What is an air mass explain its classification and modification?

A warm air mass (w) is that whose temperature is greater than the surface temperature of the region visited while if the air mass is colder than the surface temperature it is called cold air mass (k). … Such mechanical modifications in an air mass are introduced due to cyclonic and anticyclonic conditions.

What do you mean by 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 in any direction and can reach from ground level to the stratosphere—16 kilometers (10 miles) into the atmosphere.

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What is an example of air mass modification?

a change in the properties of a tropospheric air mass when the air mass moves to different latitudes or over an underlying surface different from that of the source region—for example when the air mass moves from the sea to the land or vice versa.

What are the 5 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).

What happens when air masses collide?

When two different air masses come into contact they don’t mix. They push against each other along a line called a front. … As it rises the warm air cools rapidly. This configuration called a cold front gives rise to cumulonimbus clouds often associated with heavy precipitation and storms.

What does mP mean in air masses?

Maritime polar

Maritime polar (mP) is also cold but moist due to its origination over the oceans. The desert region air masses (hot and dry) are designated by ‘cT’ for ‘continental tropical’.

What are characteristics of 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 Frontogenesis and Frontolysis?

The process of formation of a front is known as Frontogenesis (war between two air masses) and dissipation of a front is known as Frontolysis (one of the air masses win against the other). Frontogenesis involves convergence of two distinct air masses. Frontolysis involves overriding of one of the air mass by another.

What is cold air mass?

Arctic Antarctic and polar air masses are cold. The qualities of arctic air are developed over ice and snow-covered ground. Arctic air is deeply cold colder than polar air masses. … Polar air masses develop over higher latitudes over the land or ocean are very stable and generally shallower than arctic air.

What is an air mass Upsc?

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 is an example of air mass?

The air masses in and around North America include the continental arctic (cA) maritime polar (mP) maritime tropical (mT) continental tropical (cT) and continental polar (cP) air masses. Air is not the same everywhere. … These different types air are called air masses.

What causes an air mass?

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.

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What causes wind?

Wind is the movement of air caused by the uneven heating of the Earth by the sun. … Warm equatorial air rises higher into the atmosphere and migrates toward the poles. This is a low-pressure system. At the same time cooler denser air moves over Earth’s surface toward the Equator to replace the heated air.

What is the cold front?

A cold front is defined as the transition zone where a cold air mass is replacing a warmer air mass. Cold fronts generally move from northwest to southeast. The air behind a cold front is noticeably colder and drier than the air ahead of it. … On colored weather maps a cold front is drawn with a solid blue line.

What’s the meaning of warm front?

A warm front is the boundary between a mass of warm air and a retreating mass of cold air. At constant atmospheric pressure warm air is less dense than cold air and so it tends to override rather than displace the cold air.

What is the difference between weather and climate?

Weather refers to short term atmospheric conditions while climate is the weather of a specific region averaged over a long period of time. Climate change refers to long-term changes.

What does cT mean in air masses?

continental Tropical

The continental Tropical (cT) air mass originates in arid or desert regions in the middle or lower latitudes principally during the summer season. It is strongly heated in general but its moisture content is so low that the intense dry convection normally fails to reach the condensation level.

What are the 4 types of fronts?

There are four different types of weather fronts: cold fronts warm fronts stationary fronts and occluded fronts.
  • Cold Front. A side view of a cold front (A top) and how it is represented on a weather map (B bottom). …
  • Warm Front. …
  • Stationary Front. …
  • Occluded Front.

How do air mass affect weather?

Air masses can affect the weather because of different air masses that are different in temperature density and moisture. When two different air masses meet a front forms. This is one way air masses effect our weather. This is also one of the ways that they effect the climate as well.

What does convective lifting mean?

Convective lifting is air rising due to positive buoyancy similar to the process of how a helium balloon rises quickly into the air since the air in the balloon is less dense than the surrounding air. This mechanism of rising air is very quick.

What moving air is called?

Air is constantly moving around the earth. This moving air is called wind. Winds are created when there are differences in air pressure from one area to another. … This is what makes air move creating the wind.

What happens when cold air meets cold air?

The boundary where a cold air mass meets a cool air mass under a warm air mass is called an occluded front. At a front the weather is usually unsettled and stormy and precipitation is common.”

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What is cP and mT?

maritime-Tropical (mT): As its name suggests a maritime-Tropical air mass forms over a tropical body of water. … continental-Polar (cP): An air mass that forms over cold land.

Where is continental Polar?

Continental polar (cP) or continental arctic (cA) air masses are cold dry and stable. These air masses originate over northern Canada and Alaska as a result of radiational cooling. They move southward east of Rockies into the Plains then eastward.

What is Arctic Maritime?

An arctic maritime air mass has its origins over the North Pole and the Arctic Ocean. … In northern Scotland arctic maritime is usually the coldest air mass but over the rest of Britain this air mass is not as cold as polar continental.

What happens when an air mass is heated?

What happens when air is heated or cooled? … So air like most other substances expands when heated and contracts when cooled. Because there is more space between the molecules the air is less dense than the surrounding matter and the hot air floats upward. This is the concept used in the hot air balloons.

What is the difference between an air mass and a front?

An air mass is a body of air with a relatively constant temperature and moisture content over a significant altitude. … A front is the boundary at which two air masses of different temperature and moisture content meet.

Do air masses move from high to low pressure?

Air near the surface flows down and away in a high pressure system (left) and air flows up and together at a low pressure system (right). … With fewer air molecules above there is less pressure from the weight of the air above. Pressure varies from day to day at the Earth’s surface – the bottom of the atmosphere.

What causes Frontogenesis?

Frontogenesis is the generation or intensification of a front. It occurs when warm air converges onto colder air and the horizontal temperature gradient amplifies by at least an order of magnitude.

What is Frontolysis in geography?

Frontolysis in meteorology is the dissipation or weakening of an atmospheric front. In contrary to areas of “Frontogenesis” the areas where air masses diverge are called areas of frontolysis.

What is occluded front Upsc?

An occluded front is a front that is formed when a cold front overtakes a warm front. The cold front moves rapidly than the warm front. Ultimately the cold front overtakes the warm front and completely displaces the warm air at the ground.

Air Mass Modification – Ch. 8

Air Masses

Types of Air Masses

What is an Air Mass?

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