Air masses and fronts
By Dylan Ferguson
Air masses
There are 5 types of air masses. The first type of air mass is Continental. The second is Maritime. The third is Tropical. The forth is Polar. The last air mass is Arctic. Continental is dry and it's formed over land. Maritime is wet or moist and its formed over water. Tropical is warm and its formed by the equator. Polar is cold and is formed by the poles. Arctic is formed by the arctic circle and is very cold. Every air mas has to have 3 characteristics. The first one is large in size such as 1000 miles long. The second one is uniform and constant make up. The third and last one is they have to bond physically. The letters k and w on a air mass mean that K goes to a colder region and w goes to a warmer region. A cold front typically moves northwest to southeast. A warm front typically moves southeast to northeast.
I got this picture from http://stormstalker.wordpress.com/tag/cold-front/
I got this information from http://www.srh.noaa.gov/jetstream/synoptic/airmass.htm
Fronts
Fronts are where 2 air masses meet. They are named for the air mass that's trying to take over the space or area. A cold front moves faster than a warm front. A stationary front wont move at all. A occluded front is when a cold air mass merges with a warm air mass and fronts are usually detectable in many ways. The first one is the wind comes together and the fronts. The second one is the temperature. The last on is the pressure on either side of the fronts. In a house the warm or hot air goes up and the cold air goes down that's called convection.
I got this information from http://www.srh.noaa.gov/jetstream/synoptic/airmass.htm
I got this picture from http://www.kidsgeo.com/geography-for-kids/0128-cold-fronts.php