Air Masses
Large bodies of air with fairly uniform temperature and humidity.
What are air masses?
An instrument that measures air pressure and can help predict changing weather conditions.
What is a barometer?
The circular flow of air that results from warm air rising, cool air sinking, and Earth’s rotation.
What are convection currents (in the atmosphere)?
The continuous movement of sea water driven by wind, the Coriolis effect, and differences in density.
What are ocean currents?
The long-term average of weather patterns in a region.
What is climate?
These two main properties define the type of an air mass.
What are temperature and moisture?
This local phenomenon occurs when the land surface cools or warms faster than the sea surface, creating breezes.
What is a land/sea breeze?
These global wind belts lie near the equator and feature warm, rising air and significant precipitation.
What are the trade winds (or the intertropical convergence zone)?
Warm ocean currents, such as the Gulf Stream, affect nearby coastal regions by causing this general climate change.
What is a warming effect (or milder climates)?
This geographical factor, describing how far north or south of the equator a place is, strongly affects climate.
What is latitude?
This type of air mass develops over warm, tropical oceans and brings humid, hot conditions.
What is a maritime tropical (mT) air mass?
A boundary with generally stable, layered clouds that forms when a warm air mass slides gently over a cold air mass.
What is a warm front?
The apparent deflection of moving air (and water) due to Earth’s rotation is known as this effect.
What is the Coriolis effect?
This cyclical climate pattern involving changes in ocean surface temperatures in the Pacific can drastically affect weather patterns around the world.
What is El Niño?
Besides latitude, the other major driver for differing climates is unequal heating primarily caused by variations in this.
What is sunlight (solar radiation) intensity?
When a cold air mass replaces a warm air mass, this kind of front is formed, often bringing severe weather.
What is a cold front?
Areas of low pressure typically bring this type of weather.
What are cloudy, stormy, or wet conditions?
The continuous circulation of air in the atmosphere transfers these two things around the globe, influencing weather.
What are heat (thermal energy) and moisture?
Ocean currents transfer both of these around the planet, moderating and influencing global weather patterns.
What are heat (thermal energy) and moisture (water vapor)?
Earth’s rotation causes these belts of high and low pressure, creating predictable wind patterns.
What are global pressure belts?
This term describes the boundary between two air masses, often associated with significant changes in weather.
What is a front?
This key approach, required by MS-ESS2-5, involves gathering meteorological data to anticipate weather changes caused by moving air masses.
What is collecting or analyzing data to predict weather?
According to MS-ESS2-6, modeling these large-scale atmospheric patterns is crucial to understand how regions develop distinct climates.
What are global wind patterns?
(Accept “global wind belts” or “large-scale atmospheric patterns.”)
This cool-phase involves colder-than-average sea-surface temperatures in the central and eastern tropical Pacific, often strengthening trade winds and altering global rainfall patterns.
What is La Niña?
These high-altitude, fast-flowing bands of wind are generated by the uneven heating of Earth’s surface and the planet’s rotation, significantly steering weather systems around the globe.
What are jet streams?