Student Pages - Lesson 4 - Activity 2: Air Masses
1. After identifying the four major air mass areas, (1) Polar latitudes (2) Continental (3) Maritime (4) Tropical latitudes, work with your group to examine how these air masses differ.
Use spread sheet software with the following headings to create a prediction chart as well as a chart detailing real-time data.
For your prediction chart, use the following headings:
Location (1, 2, 3, or 4), Moisture (wet or dry), Temperature (hot or cold), Direction Air Moves (in U.S.)
Real-time data headings:
Location (1, 2, 3, or 4), Moisture (wet or dry), Temperature (hot or cold), Direction Air Moves (in U.S.)
Follow these links to collect weather data for each of the air masses listed in the lesson plan: You may need to access more than one site to collect all of your data.
- http://www.rap.ucar.edu/weather/
- http://www.www.ozzzy.dyndns.org/airmass.html
- http://www.intellicast.com/IcastPage/LoadPage.aspx?loc=usa&seg=Sail&prodgrp=CurrentWeather&product=CurrentWinds&prodnav=none
- http://wxmaps.org/pix/avnmr.00hr.html
- http://wxmaps.org/pix/fcstkey.html Use this web page to interpret the symbols on the images.
2. Discuss your results with your group and be prepared to share your results with your class. Answer the following question, How do the air masses differ?
©2008 Nauticus