Air Mass. Air Mass is an extremely large body of air whose properties of temperature and moisture content (humidity), at any given altitude, are fairly similar in any horizontal direction.

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

Five air masses affect the United States during the course of a typical year: continental polar, continental arctic, continental tropical, maritime polar, and maritime tropical. Continental air masses are characterized by dry air near the surface while maritime air masses are moist.

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).

maritime air masses

Classification of Air Masses Air masses are classified according to the temperature and moisture characteristics of their source regions. Based on temperature: tropical (warm), polar (cold), arctic (extremely cold).

What is the difference in the air temperature and humidity between the cP and mT air masses? The cP air mass is warmer and less humid. The cP air mass is colder and more humid. The mT air mass is warmer and more humid.

Answer: An air mass, then, is named by the combination of its humidity and temperature designation. The very cold high latitude air does not hold much moisture and does not have heavy evaporation or precipitation, so mA air is also not found.

An air mass is a body of air with a relatively constant temperature and moisture content over a significant altitude. Air masses typically cover hundreds, thousands, or millions of square kilometers. A front is the boundary at which two air masses of different temperature and moisture content meet.

the air mass AND its abbreviation). What do the letters “K” or “W” mean when attached to an air mass? The “K” means that the air moving across a region is colder than the land surface temperature while “W” indicates that the air is warmer than the land surface temperature. 4.

At a stationary front the air masses do not move (Figure below). A front may become stationary if an air mass is stopped by a barrier, such as a mountain range. A stationary front may bring days of rain, drizzle, and fog.

[′wȯrm ¦er ′mas] (meteorology) An air mass that is warmer than the surrounding air; an implication that the air mass is warmer than the surface over which it is moving.

Warm fronts often bring stormy weather as the warm air mass at the surface rises above the cool air mass, making clouds and storms. Warm fronts move more slowly than cold fronts because it is more difficult for the warm air to push the cold, dense air across the Earth’s surface.