Air Masses and Fronts in South America

THE extension of regular commercial air lines in Brazil, as in other parts of the world, has been accompanied by an important increase of meteorological knowledge. During the last five years the reorganized Brazilian Meteorological Service has been gathering data on weather conditions in terms of air masses and fronts. Its network of climatological stations is still far from adequate, especially in the vast interior, and the reports from outlying observers are not all that might be wished. Nevertheless, the studies of Adalberto Serra and Leandro Ratisbonna now make possible a tentative description in modern terms of the climatic features of the South American continent. The interacting warm and cold air masses of this part of the southern hemisphere can be divided geographically into equatorial, tropical, and polar types. The source regions, lines of movement, and normal positions of the fronts can now be identified with a fair degree of certainty

Geography · Meteorology · Environmental and biological studies · Geography and Environmental Studies · History