hence less energy is required to raise its temperature. If high pressure persists, air pollution will build up due to pollutants trapped near the surface caused by the subsiding motion associated with the high. Fronts Fronts in meteorology are boundaries between air masses that have different density, air temperature, and humidity. Strictly speaking, the front is marked at the warmer edge of a frontal zone where the gradient is very large. When a front passes over a point, it is marked by changes in temperature, moisture, wind speed and direction, a minimum of atmospheric pressure, and a change in the cloud pattern, sometimes with precipitation. Cold fronts develop where the cold air mass is advancing, warm fronts where the warm air is advancing, and a stationary front is not moving. Fronts classically wrap around low pressure centers as indicated in the image here depicted for the northern hemisphere. On a larger scale, the Earth's polar front is a sharpening of the general equator-to-pole temperature gradient, underlying a high-altitude jet stream for reasons of thermal wind balance. Fronts usually travel from west to east, although they can move in a north-south direction or even east to west (a "backdoor" front) as airflow wraps around a low pressure center. Frontal zones can be distorted by such geographic features as mountains and large bodies of water. Cold front A cold front is located at the leading edge of a sharp temperature gradient on an isotherm analysis, often marked by a sharp surface pressure trough. Cold fronts can move up to twice as quickly as warm fronts and produce sharper changes in weather since cold air is denser than warm air and rapidly lifts as well as pushes the warmer air. Cold fronts are typically accompanied by a narrow band of clouds, showers and thunderstorms. On a weather map, the surface position of the cold front is marked with a blue line of triangles (pips) pointing in the direction of travel, at the leading edge of the cooler air mass. Warm front Warm fronts mark the position on the Earth's surface where a relatively warm body of air is advancing into colder air. The front is marked on the warm edge of the gradient in isotherms, and lies within a low pressure trough that tends to be broader and weaker than that of a cold front. Warm fronts move more slowly than cold fronts