AirMasses

An air mass is an extremely large body of air whose properties of temperature and moisture content (humidity), at any given altitude, are fairly similar in any horizontal direction. Air masses can cover hundreds of thousands of square miles.

Use the following 4 exercises to help understand how to locate air masses.

Need a quick review of air masses?

Exercise 1: Indicate where the dividing line is between cP and mT Airmasses

Across the top there are a series of buttons:

	Erase last line = this button erases the latest line you've drawn; pressing twice will erase the last two lines, etc.
	Colors = Use these to select the color of the isolines you draw
	Show Solution = If you want to see how we analyzed the data, press this button

Exercise 2: Indicate where the dividing line is between mP and cP Airmasses

Exercise 3: Indicate where the dividing line is between cold and a warm airmass

Exercise 4: Draw a blue line between the cold and a warm airmass

Resources

There are other introductory books that cover these topics, such as Meteorology: Understanding the Atmosphere by Ackerman and Knox, published by Brooks/Cole.

Additional information from WW2010, including identification on weather maps.