Air Mass (2024)

FAQs

Air Mass? ›

An air mass is a large body of air with generally uniform temperature and humidity. The area over which an air mass originates is what provides its characteristics.

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 Earth, and can reach from ground level to the stratosphere—16 kilometers (10 miles) into the atmosphere.

a large area of air that has nearly the same temperature and humidity at any height. (Definition of air mass from the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus © Cambridge University Press)

An air mass is a large body of air with roughly the same temperature and humidity. Air masses take on the characteristics of the regions they form in. The interaction of air masses can cause major changes in weather.

. Four major types of air masses influence the weather in North America: maritime tropical, continental tropical, maritime polar, and continental polar. As shown in Figure 1, the characteristics of an air mass depend on the temperatures and moisture content of the region over which the air mass forms.

AIR MASS--A huge body of air that has similar temperature, humidity and air pressure at any given height. TROPICAL--A low pressure air mass that forms in the tropics POLAR--A high pressure cold air mass that forms north of 50 degrees north latitude, and south of 50 degrees south latitude.

Air is not just empty space—it has substance, or mass. Air has molecules that are constantly moving. Because air has mass, Earth's gravity attracts it and gives it weight. Because it has weight, and the air molecules are constantly bumping into things, it exerts pressure.

Examples from the Collins Corpus

North of the front, a colder Arctic air mass arrived with wintry showers. The coming week has a chilly outlook as we will be influenced at times by a much colder air mass to the east of us.

When the air is blown from the straw, the bubbles can be observed inside the beaker. What happened here is that the water level inside the inverted glass drops. This is because the space near the top is occupied by air. Hence it proves that air has mass.

Mass is the amount of matter or substance that makes up an object. It is measured in units called kilograms, which can be abbreviated kg. It's important to remember that mass is different from weight. Mass always stays the same, while weight changes with changes in gravity.

How do air masses move? ›

Air masses are slowly pushed along by high-level winds. When an air mass moves over a new region, it shares its temperature and humidity with that region. So the temperature and humidity of a particular location depends partly on the characteristics of the air mass that sits over it.

When two different air masses collide, they don't mix. They push against each other along a line called air front. When a warm air mass meets a cold air mass, the warm air rises as it is lighter and the water vapour in it condenses at higher altitudes. This type of front is called a warm front.

Alaska is affected by two highly contrasting air mass types: a maritime northern Pacific system lying to the south, and an Arctic strongly polar air mass system to the north.

The air around you has weight, and it presses against everything it touches. That pressure is called atmospheric pressure, or air pressure. It is the force exerted on a surface by the air above it as gravity pulls it to Earth. Atmospheric pressure is commonly measured with a barometer.

a large body of air with similar temperature and moisture characteristics.

The density of air or atmospheric density, denoted ρ, is the mass per unit volume of Earth's atmosphere. Air density, like air pressure, decreases with increasing altitude. It also changes with variations in atmospheric pressure, temperature and humidity.

North of the front, a colder Arctic air mass arrived with wintry showers. The coming week has a chilly outlook as we will be influenced at times by a much colder air mass to the east of us.