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- source region noun : an extensive region of the earth's surface where large masses of air having uniform temperature and humidity conditions characteristic of the region originate
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The meaning of SOURCE REGION is an extensive region of the earth's surface where large masses of air having uniform temperature and humidity conditions characteristic of the region originate.
Parts of the Earth's surface where the air can stagnate and gradually gain properties of the underlying surface are called source regions. The main source...
Feb 19, 2022 · Air masses are born in a source region where they take on their characteristic temperature and moisture content. Source regions are often regions of low relief and calm wind that prevent turbulent mixing and allow the air to take on the conditions of the surface over which it forms.
- Continental Polar Air Mass
- Maritime Polar Air Mass
- Continental Tropical Air Mass
Continental Polar (cP) Air Masses develop over the landmasses of subpolar regions. They primarily affect areas at high latitudes like Canada, the Northern United States, as well as Northern Asia. It is characterized by cold, dry weather with little cloud cover and precipitation, especially during the winter. The high-pressure system that exists ove...
Maritime Polar (mP) Air Masses form over the freezing North Atlantic and Pacific Oceans near the Arctic. As a result, they are characterized by cold, moist, and unstable weather. When it originates directly over the water, the air mass can influence adjacent coastlines. For example, the polar air that originates over the North Atlantic has a signif...
Continental Tropical (cT) Air Masses form approximately 25 degrees north and south of the Equator over the dry, mostly arid regions of the world. It mainly occurs over deserts, including the Sahara, the deserts of Mexico, Australia, and the Arab Peninsula.
- Continental Polar (cP) Air. Continental polar air is cold, dry, and stable. It forms over the snow-covered interiors of Canada and Alaska. The most common example of continental polar air entering the U.S. comes in winter, when the jet stream dips southward, carrying cold, dry cP air, sometimes as far south as Florida.
- Continental Arctic (cA) Air. Like continental polar air, continental arctic air is also cold and dry, but because it forms farther north over the Arctic basin and Greenland ice cap, its temperatures are generally colder.
- Maritime Polar (mP) Air. Maritime polar air masses are cool, moist, and unstable. Those affecting the U.S. originate over the North Pacific Ocean and the Northwestern Atlantic Ocean.
- Maritime Tropical (mT) Air. Maritime tropical air masses are warm and very humid. Those affecting the U.S. originate over the Gulf of Mexico, the Caribbean Sea, the western Atlantic, and the subtropical Pacific.
Where an air mass receives it’s characteristics of temperature and humidity is called the source region. Air masses are slowly pushed along by high-level winds, when an air mass moves over a new region, it shares its temperature and humidity with that region.
source region (for air masses) Extensive areas of essentially uniform surface conditions over land or water, typically of large-scale air subsidence and lateral divergence, where air masses develop their initial properties.
