Monsoon - General Monsoon Circulation, The Asian Monsoons, The Monsoon Of India, The Monsoons Of South China And Japan
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A monsoon is a seasonal change in the direction of the prevailing wind. This wind shift typically brings about a marked change in local weather. Monsoons are often associated with rainy seasons in the tropics (the areas of Earth within 23.5° latitude of the equator) and the subtropics (areas between 23.5° and about 35° latitude, both north and south). In these areas, life is critically dependent on the monsoon rains. A weak monsoon rainy season may cause drought, crop failures, and hardship for people and wildlife. The central role that monsoons play in determining climates around the world has made their study a high priority for meteorologists.
Many parts of the world experience monsoons to some extent. Probably the most famous are the Asian monsoons, which include the distinctly different monsoons that affect India, north China, and Japan, and south China and southeast Asia. Monsoons also affect portions of central Africa, where their rain is critical to supporting life in the area south of the Sahara Desert. Lesser monsoon circulations affect parts of the southwestern United States. These summer rainy periods bring much needed rain to the dry plateaus of Arizona and New Mexico.
Additional Topics
Monsoons, like most other winds, occur in response to the sun heating the atmosphere. In their simplest form, monsoons are caused by differences in solar heating between the oceans and continents, and they are most likely to form where a large continental land mass meets a major ocean basin. During the early summer, the increasing solar energy heats up the land surfaces fairly quickly. Water, on t…
While the thermal circulation described previously is a central part of monsoons, it is not sufficient to explain the world's most pronounced monsoons, those of Asia. Since they span such a huge area and affect over a billion people, the Asian monsoons have been studied for over a century to determine their causes and reasons for their variation. Although our understanding is not complete, …
The interplay of jet streams and monsoon winds is well illustrated in the Indian monsoon. During the early summer months, increased solar heating begins to heat the Indian subcontinent, which would tend to set up a monsoon circulation cell between southern Asia and the Indian Ocean. However, the subtropical jet stream occupies its winter position at about 30° north latitude, south of the Hi…
The monsoons of China and Japan are strongly affected by the huge land mass of Siberia. During the winter, the interior of Siberia becomes extremely cold. Cold air is dense, so a cold area of high pressure forms, where the air sinks from aloft. When it reaches the surface, the air spreads outward in all directions. The result is a dry winter monsoon that blows from the north through south China an…
The importance of monsoons is demonstrated by the experience of the Sahel, a band of land on the southern fringe of the Sahara Desert. This area would also be arid if it were not for the seasonal monsoon, whose rains normally transform it to a grassland suitable for grazing livestock. The wetter southern Sahel can support agriculture, and many residents migrated to the area during the years of str…
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