Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Visualization of the ice and snow covering Earth's northern and southern polar regions Northern Hemisphere permafrost (permanently frozen ground) in purple. The polar regions, also called the frigid zones or polar zones, of Earth are Earth's polar ice caps, the regions of the planet that surround its geographical poles (the North and South Poles), lying within the polar circles.
The North American Arctic is composed of the northern polar regions of Alaska (USA), Northern Canada and Greenland. [1] Major bodies of water include the Arctic Ocean, Hudson Bay, the Gulf of Alaska and North Atlantic Ocean. [2] The North American Arctic lies above the Arctic Circle. [3] It is part of the Arctic, which is the northernmost ...
(cA is continental arctic; cP is continental polar; mP is maritime polar; cT is continental tropic; and mT is maritime tropic.) The Arctic front is the semipermanent, semi-continuous weather front between the cold arctic air mass and the warmer air of the polar cell. It can also be defined as the southern boundary of the Arctic air mass. [1]
Continental polar air masses that affect North America form over interior Canada. Continental Tropical air masses (cT) are a type of tropical air produced by the subtropical ridge over large areas of land and typically originate from low-latitude deserts such as the Sahara Desert in northern Africa, which is the major source of these air masses.
Three major ice centers formed in North America: the Labrador, Keewatin, and Cordilleran. The Cordilleran covered the region from the Pacific Ocean to the eastern front of the Rocky Mountains and the Labrador and Keewatin fields are referred to as the Laurentide Ice Sheet. Central North America has evidence of the numerous lobes and sublobes.
When the polar vortex is strong, cold air is less likely to plunge deep into North America or Europe. Picture this strong vortex fencing off the coldest air from the U.S. and Europe.
The word Arctic comes from the Greek word ἀρκτικός (arktikos), "near the Bear, northern" [4] and from the word ἄρκτος (arktos), meaning bear. [5] The name refers either to the constellation known as Ursa Major, the "Great Bear", which is prominent in the northern portion of the celestial sphere, or to the constellation Ursa Minor, the "Little Bear", which contains the celestial ...
A major cold blast is in store for more than 30 states as a widespread arctic air outbreak will send nearly every American east of the Rockies into a deep freeze. This will be due to a polar ...