How do air masses and fronts move?
Air masses create weather as they are moved by winds around the globe. Fronts develop at the boundary where two air masses with different temperatures—and, usually, different humidities—come into contact with each other.
How do air masses change as they move?
Air masses modify once they move out of their source region. For example, a cold air mass will modify (warm up in this case) as it moves over warmer land in lower latitudes. The more intense sunlight in the lower latitudes also helps modify the cold air.
What is the mass movement of air?
The Movement of Air Masses: transporting warm air northward and colder air southward. Counterclockwise winds associated with cyclones transport heat and moisture from lower to higher latitudes and play a significant role in the movement of air masses.
How air masses are formed?
An air mass forms whenever the atmosphere remains in contact with a large, relatively uniform land or sea surface for a time sufficiently long to acquire the temperature and moisture properties of that surface.
Which factors causes air masses to move in the United States?
One major influence of air mass movement is the upper level winds such as the upper level winds associated with the jet stream. The jet stream wind is often referred to as a steering wind. The troughs and ridges of the jet stream will help transport cold air toward lower latitudes and warm air toward high latitudes.
What causes air mass movements quizlet?
Air masses are formed by uneven heating and cooling of the Earth by the sun. This causes pressure differences in different areas of the globe. The movement of air masses is just the flow of high pressure air masses to low pressure areas. You just studied 8 terms!
How do air masses move in the troposphere?
The uneven heating of the regions of the troposphere by the sun ( the sun warms the air at the equator more than the air at the poles )causes convection currents, large-scale patterns of winds that move heat and moisture around the globe.
What causes mass movement?
Gravity is the main force responsible for mass movements. Gravity is a force that acts everywhere on the Earth's surface, pulling everything in a direction toward the center of the Earth.
What are the types of mass movement?
The four main kinds of mass movements are falls, topples, slides, spreads, and flows. Many of these include several different types. For example, a mudflow and creep are both a type of flow, though a mudflow is fast-moving, and creep happens very slowly.
What are air masses quizlet?
Air Mass. An air mass is a huge body of air in the lower atmosphere that has similar temperature,humidity, and air pressure at given height.
Why do air masses move from west to east?
The reason that they most often move from west to east is due to the jet stream. The jet stream is a narrow band of fast, flowing air currents located near the altitude of the tropopause that flow from west to east. The jet stream flows around the entire earth. They usually have a meandering, snake-like shape.
What drives the movement of wind?
The Short Answer: Gases move from high-pressure areas to low-pressure areas. And the bigger the difference between the pressures, the faster the air will move from the high to the low pressure. That rush of air is the wind we experience.
How does air mass form quizlet?
Air masses are formed by uneven heating and cooling of the Earth by the sun. This causes pressure differences in different areas of the globe. The movement of air masses is just the flow of high pressure air masses to low pressure areas.
What front makes air masses move sideways?
occur when air masses first meet or when a cold or warm front stops moving. For a while, the boundary between the air masses stays in the same location—it stays stationary. The air in each air mass can still move sideways along the front or upward.
What happens as an air mass moves over an area?
When winds move air masses, they carry their weather conditions (heat or cold, dry or moist) from the source region to a new region. When the air mass reaches a new region, it might clash with another air mass that has a different temperature and humidity. This can create a severe storm.
What causes mass movement quizlet?
Gravity causes mass movement.
What are 3 types of mass movement?
Mass movement (blockfall, rotational slumping, landslides) is important on some coasts with weak and/or complex geology. Mass movement is the downslope movement of material (rock and soil) under the force of gravity.
What is mass movement caused by?
Gravity is the main force responsible for mass movements. Gravity is a force that acts everywhere on the Earth's surface, pulling everything in a direction toward the center of the Earth. On a flat surface, parallel to the Earth's surface, the force of gravity acts downward.
How does mass movement occur?
Mass movements are defined as processes of erosion, transport and accumulation of material that occur on both gentle and steep slopes mainly owing to gravitational forces. Thus, mass movements results in levelling and forming of landscapes. Different types of mass movements occur such as landslides or solifluction.
What is the general direction air masses move across North America quizlet?
In the continental United States how air masses moved? In the continental United States air masses are commonly moved by the prevailing westerlies and jet streams.
Why do cold fronts move from west to east?
Why do most cold fronts come from the west? The Coriolis force, due to the rotation of the Earth, is the reason we see cold fronts move from west to east in the mid-latitudes, including across southern Australia.
What is the movement of the air called?
Movement of air caused by temperature or pressure differences is wind.
What drives the movement of wind quizlet?
The wind is driven by differences in temperatures and pressures.
How is an air mass formed?
An air mass forms whenever the atmosphere remains in contact with a large, relatively uniform land or sea surface for a time sufficiently long to acquire the temperature and moisture properties of that surface.
How do moving air masses create weather quizlet?
As a mass of cold, dense air moves forward, warmer air ahead of it is pushed upward. Water vapor in the warm air condenses as the air rises. Cold fronts often produce tall cumulonimbus clouds and precipitation. Brief, heavy storms are likely.
What happens at an occluded front?
At an occluded front, the cold air mass from the cold front meets the cool air that was ahead of the warm front. The warm air rises as these air masses come together. Occluded fronts usually form around areas of low atmospheric pressure.
Which factors can lead to mass movement?
Such factors include: weathering or erosional debris cover on slopes, which is usually liable to mass movement; the character and structure of rocks, such as resistant permeable beds prone to sliding because of underlying impermeable rocks; the removal of the vegetation cover, which increases the slope's susceptibility …
What are the 3 types of mass movement?
Mass movement is the downslope movement of material (rock and soil) under the force of gravity. It is the umbrella term for a wide range of specific movements including landslide, rotational slumping and blockfall.
What is types of mass movement?
Types of Mass Movement: Creep; Fall, Slip, Flow; Solifluction; Rock Glaciers; Slumping (Earthflow); Mudflow (lahar); Debris Flow, Debris Slide, Debris Avalanche; Rockslide; Rockfall; Debris Fall.
What are mass movements quizlet?
Mass movement is the movement of earth materials called regoilth down a slope under the influence of gravity.