Arctic front

When they reach Northern Europe, they have usually travelled over an open sea, and convective cloudiness has developed.

Arctic Cold Fronts are usually so far north that Meteosat images alone are inadequate to recognize them.

The final check is best made using a loop of AVHRR images with the help of numerical model parameter fields.

These fronts form over the ice/sea boundary and move southwards with the basic flow.

Often this type is so shallow and weak that it can not be detected in Meteosat water vapour images.

Different air masses which affect North America, as well as other continents, tend to be separated by frontal boundaries. In this illustration, the Arctic front separates Arctic from Polar air masses, while the Polar front separates Polar air from warm air masses. (cA is continental arctic; cP is continental polar; mP is maritime polar; cT is continental tropic; and mT is maritime tropic.)