THS Earth/Space Science

After completing discussions of temperature and heat last week, followed by moisture and humidity earlier this week, we combined these concepts into a discussion about air masses in class today. We labeled air masses as being either warm or cold, moist or dry.When these characteristics are fused, we end up with a total of four possible combinations:

• Maritime tropical (mT): Moist, Warm
• Continental tropical (cT): Dry, Warm
• Maritime polar (mP): Moist, Cold
• Continental polar (cP): Dry, Cold

We then discussed where each of these air masses would originate and how they’d move into Kansas. Be prepared to see a map of North America on a quiz or a test on which you will need to label the areas of origin for each of the four air masses described above. Also – bring that page back tomorrow so we can disect Fronts.

Image source:  http://www.met.tamu.edu/class/Metr304/