Monsoon
A monsoon is a seasonal wind which lasts for several months. The word was first used in English for the seasonal rains in the Indian subcontinent. These rains blow in from the Indian Ocean and Arabian Sea in the southwest bringing heavy rainfall to the area.
Monsoons also occur in other regions such as in North America, Sub-Saharan Africa, Brazil and East Asia.
Monsoons happen because of a simple fact: land heats up faster than water. The temperature difference between the land and sea can be as much as 20°C – land temperatures in India can be hotter than 45°C, while the surrounding water in the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea remains in the low 20s. The heat absorbed by the land warms the air above it. The hot air rises, and cooler ocean air rushes inland to replace it. As it moves, it carries moisture with it, releasing it over land as the summer monsoon (also known as southwest monsoon).
The hot air over the land tends to rise, creating an area of low pressure. This creates a steady wind blowing toward the land, bringing the moist near-surface air over the oceans with it.[1] Rainfall is increased by the moist ocean air being lifted upwards by mountains, as with the Tibetan Plateau,[2] and by surface heating.[3]
Monsoon Media
- Monsoon clouds near Nagercoil.jpg
Advancing monsoon clouds and showers in Aralvaimozhy, near Nagercoil, Tamil Nadu, India
- Monsoon clouds arriving at Port Blair, Andaman.jpg
Monsoon clouds arriving at Port Blair, Andaman, India
- Monsoon clouds Lucknow.JPG
Monsoon clouds over Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India
- Monsoons Wet, Dry, Repeat.webm
This visualization shows the Asian monsoon and how it develops using observational and modeled data. It also shows some of the impacts.
- Saison des pluies à Mayotte.jpg
Southeast African monsoon clouds over Mayotte
- Incoming monsoon clouds over Arizona.jpg
Incoming monsoon clouds over Phoenix, Arizona
- LightningCNP.ogg
Three-second video of a lightning strike within a thunderstorm over Island in the Sky, Canyonlands National Park
- India southwest summer monsoon onset map en.svg
Onset dates and prevailing wind currents of the southwest summer monsoons in India
- (1) Agriculture and rural farms of India.jpg
Monsoon clouds in Madhya Pradesh
- 3933Typhoons Krosa Lekima monsoon tidal flooding in Calumpit, Bulacan 13.jpg
Monsoon floods in the Philippines
References
- ↑ Watts, Louisa 2009. What causes the west African monsoon? National Centre for Environmental Science. Retrieved on 2009-04-04.
- ↑ Pidwirny, Michael 2008. CHAPTER 8: Introduction to the Hydrosphere (e). Cloud Formation Processes. Physical Geography. Retrieved on 2009-01-01.
- ↑ Hurk, Bart van den and Blyth, Eleanor 2008. Global maps of Local Land-Atmosphere coupling. Archived 2009-02-25 at the Wayback Machine KNMI. Retrieved on 2009-01-02.