Indian Monsoon, most prominent of the world’s monsoon systems, which primarily affects India and its surrounding water bodies.
It blows from the northeast during cooler months and reverses direction to blow from the southwest during the warmest months of the year. This process brings large amounts of rainfall to the region during June and July.
At the Equator the area near India is unique in that dominant or frequent westerly winds occur at the surface almost constantly throughout the year; the surface easterlies reach only to latitudes near 20° N in February, and even then they have a very strong northerly component.
They soon retreat northward, and drastic changes take place in the upper-air circulation . This is a time of transition between the end of one monsoon and the beginning of the next. Late in March the high-sun season reaches the Equator and moves farther north. With it go atmospheric instability, convectional (that is, rising and turbulent) clouds, and rain. The westerly subtropical jet stream still controls the flow of air across northern India, and the surface winds are northeasterlies.
MONSOON ONSET AND EARLY DEVELOPMENTS:
As the high-sun season (that is, the Northern Hemisphere summer) moves northward during April, India becomes particularly prone to rapid heating because the highlands to the north protect it from any incursions of cold air. There are three distinct areas of relative upper tropospheric warmth—namely,
(1) above the southern Bay of Bengal,
(2) above the Plateau of Tibet, and
(3) across the trunks of the various peninsulas that are relatively dry during this time. These three areas combine to form a vast heat-source region.
The relatively warm area above the southern Bay of Bengal occurs mostly at the 500–100-millibar level. (This atmospheric pressure region typically occurs at elevations between 5,500 and 16,100 metres [18,000 and 53,000 feet] but may vary according to changes in heating and cooling).
It does not appear at a lower level and is probably caused by the release of condensation heat (associated with the change from water vapour to liquid water) at the top of towering cumulonimbus clouds along the advancing intertropical convergence.
In contrast, a heat sink appears over the southern Indian Ocean as the relatively cloud-free air cools by emitting long-wavelength radiation. Monsoon winds at the surface blow from heat sink to heat source. As a result, by May the southwest monsoon is well-established over Sri Lanka, an island off the southeastern tip of the Indian peninsula.
Also in May, the dry surface of Tibet (above 4,000 metres [13,100 feet]) absorbs and radiates heat that is readily transmitted to the air immediately above.
At about 6,000 metres (19,700 feet) an anticyclonic cell arises, causing a strong easterly flow in the upper troposphere above northern India. The subtropical jet stream suddenly changes its course to the north of the anticyclonic ridge and the highlands, though it may occasionally reappear southward of them for very brief periods.
This change of the upper tropospheric circulation above northern India
It blows from the northeast during cooler months and reverses direction to blow from the southwest during the warmest months of the year. This process brings large amounts of rainfall to the region during June and July.
At the Equator the area near India is unique in that dominant or frequent westerly winds occur at the surface almost constantly throughout the year; the surface easterlies reach only to latitudes near 20° N in February, and even then they have a very strong northerly component.
They soon retreat northward, and drastic changes take place in the upper-air circulation . This is a time of transition between the end of one monsoon and the beginning of the next. Late in March the high-sun season reaches the Equator and moves farther north. With it go atmospheric instability, convectional (that is, rising and turbulent) clouds, and rain. The westerly subtropical jet stream still controls the flow of air across northern India, and the surface winds are northeasterlies.
As the high-sun season (that is, the Northern Hemisphere summer) moves northward during April, India becomes particularly prone to rapid heating because the highlands to the north protect it from any incursions of cold air. There are three distinct areas of relative upper tropospheric warmth—namely,
(1) above the southern Bay of Bengal,
(2) above the Plateau of Tibet, and
(3) across the trunks of the various peninsulas that are relatively dry during this time. These three areas combine to form a vast heat-source region.
The relatively warm area above the southern Bay of Bengal occurs mostly at the 500–100-millibar level. (This atmospheric pressure region typically occurs at elevations between 5,500 and 16,100 metres [18,000 and 53,000 feet] but may vary according to changes in heating and cooling).
It does not appear at a lower level and is probably caused by the release of condensation heat (associated with the change from water vapour to liquid water) at the top of towering cumulonimbus clouds along the advancing intertropical convergence.
In contrast, a heat sink appears over the southern Indian Ocean as the relatively cloud-free air cools by emitting long-wavelength radiation. Monsoon winds at the surface blow from heat sink to heat source. As a result, by May the southwest monsoon is well-established over Sri Lanka, an island off the southeastern tip of the Indian peninsula.
Also in May, the dry surface of Tibet (above 4,000 metres [13,100 feet]) absorbs and radiates heat that is readily transmitted to the air immediately above.
At about 6,000 metres (19,700 feet) an anticyclonic cell arises, causing a strong easterly flow in the upper troposphere above northern India. The subtropical jet stream suddenly changes its course to the north of the anticyclonic ridge and the highlands, though it may occasionally reappear southward of them for very brief periods.
This change of the upper tropospheric circulation above northern India
