Dictionary

air mass en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• /ɛəɹ mæs/ (US)
• /ɛːɹ mæs/ (US)
• /ˈɛː mas/ (UK)

Etymology

From air + mass. Perhaps a calque of German Luftmasse.

Meanings

1. a widespread body of air, the properties of which can be identified as: (a) having been established while that air was situated over a particular region of the Earth's surface (airmass source region) and (b) undergoing specific modifications while in transit away from the source region. An air mass is often defined as a widespread body of air that is approximately homogeneous in its horizontal extent, particularly with reference to temperature and moisture distribution; in addition, the vertical temperature and moisture variations are approximately the same over its horizontal extent.
2. The amount of air through which light from a celestial object passes, normalized to 1 for an object at zenith.
   • Unfortunately, the extinction is very sensitive to the airmass[…] 2007, Th. Ratzka et al., “High spatial resolution mid-infrared observations of the low-mass young star TW Hydrae”, in Astronomy and Astrophysics, volume 471, →DOI:

Forms

Relateds

airmass source region · air mass classification

Translations (19)

mi hau whakapipi (a body of air with uniform characteristics) · no luftmasse (a body of air with uniform characteristics) · fi ilmamassa (a body of air with uniform characteristics) · ms jisim udara (a body of air with uniform characteristics) · ja 気団 (a body of air with uniform characteristics) · sv luft massa (a body of air with uniform characteristics) · hu légtömeg (a body of air with uniform characteristics) · pt massa de ar (a body of air with uniform characteristics) · tr hava kütlesi (a body of air with uniform characteristics) · ru масса воздуха (a body of air with uniform characteristics) · es masa de aire (a body of air with uniform characteristics) · ro masă de aer (a body of air with uniform characteristics) · pl masa powietrza (a body of air with uniform characteristics) · fr masse d'air (a body of air with uniform characteristics) · nl lucht massa (a body of air with uniform characteristics) · cmn 气团 (a body of air with uniform characteristics) · de Luftmasse (a body of air with uniform characteristics) · id massa udara (a body of air with uniform characteristics) · ca massa d'aire (a body of air with uniform characteristics)