Meteorology Notes Pt.

1 and 2
What is
Meteorology?

What are Air

Masses?

What are the

Global Wind
Systems?

What are the

four fronts?

Meteorology is the study of atmospheric phenomena. The root

word of meteorology is the Greek work meteoros, which means
high in the air.
Short time variations in atmospheric phenomena that interact
and affect the environment and life on Earth are called weather.
Climate is the long-term average of variations in weather for a
particular area.
An air mass is a large volume of air that has the same
characteristics such as humidity and temperature as its source
region. A source region is the area over which an air mass forms.
The origins of maritime tropical air are tropical bodies of water.
The southwestern United States and Mexico are the source
regions of continental tropical air, which is hot and dry, especially
in summer. Maritime polar air masses form over the cold waters
of the North Atlantic and North Pacific. Continental polar air
masses form over the interior of Canada and Alaska, and carry
frigid air southward in the winter.
Earths ice and snow-covered surfaced above sixty degrees north
latitude in Siberia and the Arctic Basin are the source regions of
arctic air masses.
Polar Easterlies: The polar easterlies are the wind zones between
sixty degrees N latitude and the north pole, and sixty s latitude
and the south pole.
Prevailing Westerlies: The prevailing westerlies are the wind
systems on Earth located between latitudes 30 degrees N and 60
degrees N, and 30 degrees S and 60 degrees S
Trade Winds: Between latitudes 30 degrees N and the equator is a
circulation belt of wind known as the trade winds.
A collision of two masses forms a front a narrow region between
two air masses of different densities.
Occluded front: all together ; Stationary front: different sides
Cold front: When cold, dense air displaces warm air, it forces the
warm air, which is less dense, up along a steep slope. This type of
collision is called a cold front. Intense precipitation and
sometimes thunderstorms.
Warm front: Advancing warm air displaces cold air along a warm
front. A warm front develops a gradual boundary slope.
Widespread light precipitation.
Stationary front: When two air masses meet but neither
advances, the boundary between them stalls. This stationary
front frequently occurs between two modified air masses that
have small temperature and pressure gradients between them.
Sometimes light winds and precipitation.
Occluded front. Sometimes a cold air mass moves so rapidly that
it overtakes a warm front and forces the warm air upward. As the

What are
pressure
systems?

warm air is lifted, the advancing cold air mass collides with the
cold air mass in front of the warm front. A warm air mass is
squeezed upward between two cold air masses. Strong winds and
heavy precipitation.
Low pressure systems: In surface low-pressure systems, air rises.
When air from outside the system replaces the rising air, this air
spirals inward toward the center and then upward. Clouds and
precipitation
High pressure systems: In a surface high-pressure system, sinking
air moves away from the systems center when it reaches Earths
surface. Clear skies and fair weather.