What are the two main characteristics of air masses?

Asked by: Chris Cooper

Air masses are characterized by their temperature and humidity properties.

What are the 2 characteristics of an air mass?

The two characteristics that are used to classify air masses are temperature and humidity.

What are the two types of air masses?

Experts classify air masses based on temperature and humidity. Air masses can be further categorized based on whether they occur over water or land. The 4 types of air masses that impact North America most commonly are maritime tropical (mT), continental tropical (cT), maritime polar (mP), and continental polar (cP).

What are the characteristics of an air mass?

Air masses are relatively large bodies of air that are fairly horizontally uniform in characteristics. They have relatively uniform temperature and moisture content; the region separating two different air masses is called a front.

What are the main types of air masses?

There are four categories for air masses: arctic, tropical, polar and equatorial. Arctic air masses form in the Arctic region and are very cold.

What are characteristics of continental tropical air masses?

Continental tropical air masses are extremely hot and dry. 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.

What are the characteristics of each type of front?

There are four basic types of fronts, and the weather associated with them varies.

• Cold Front. A cold front is the leading edge of a colder air mass. …
• Warm Front. Warm fronts tend to move slower than cold fronts and are the leading edge of warm air moving northward. …
• Stationary Front. …
• Occluded Front.

What are the characteristics of maritime polar air masses?

Maritime polar (mP): Cool and moist. They usually bring cloudy, damp weather to the USA. Maritime polar air masses form over the northern Atlantic and the northern Pacific oceans. They most often influence the Pacific Northwest and the Northeast.

When two air masses meet what happens?

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 is an air mass describe its chief characteristics?

The air with distinctive characteristics in terms of temperature and humidity is called an air mass. It is a large body of air having little horizontal variation in temperature and moisture. Air masses form an integral part of the global planetary wind system. Therefore, they are associated with one or other wind belt.

What are characteristics of air?

Air is a gas (as opposed to a liquid or a solid) and contains about 78% nitrogen, 21% oxygen, and 1% argon. There are other trace gases in air, like helium, carbon dioxide, and neon, just to name a few.