Air Fronts And Air Masses
By: Declan Dooley
There Are Many Different Types of Air Masses!
masses including:
Continental Polar (cP): cold, dry, and stable
Continental Tropical (cT): hot, dry, stable air aloft-unstable air surface
Continental Arctic (cA): very cold
Maritime Polar (mP): cool, moist, unstable
Maritime Tropical (mT): tropical, warm, moist, usually unstable
Picture From: http://www.fas.org/irp/imint/docs/rst/Sect14/Sect14_1b.html
How The Air Masses Form.
Tropical: Normally located around 25 degrees away from the equator
Continental: Normally above huge land masses, dry
Marine: Normally above oceans, moist
Another Thing: If air masses have a K attached to them it means that the air mass is colder than the land under it. If the air mass has a W attached to it it means that the air mass is warmer than the ground under it.
Fronts
Picture Source: http://okfirst.mesonet.org/train/meteorology/Fronts.html