Monsoon Flashcards
What does monsoon refer to?
Climate that has an apparent seasonal shift of prevailing winds between winter and summer, notably in tropical Asia, Australia, Africa,
Why are many developing countries vulnerable to the influence of their monsoon-dominated climates?
Their culture and lifestyle have evolved around its cyclical nature, and agriculture is still the most common form of land use in most of these regions. The dependency of the agricultural sector on monsoonal rains - particularly in countries with poor infrastructure and increased urbanisation - results in societies that are highly vulnerable to variability in monsoonal characteristics, such as onset and termination dates, total rainfall amounts, and rainfall intensities.
What is the fundamental driver of all the monsoon systems?
Solar heating of the land during the spring season that helps to establish a land-sea temperature difference.
What does the contrast of the land being warmer than the surrounding ocean trigger?
A low-level ow of moisture from nearby oceans, and this moisture is rained out during convection over monsoonal regions
How is the wet seasoned maintained?
As the monsoon season matures during summer, latent heat released by convection high above the land surface helps to pull in additional moisture.
What does the change of seasons mean for the movement of the peak solar heating?
Moves equator ward and then into the Southern Hemisphere, thereby heating the adjacent ocean more than the Asian land region.
As a consequence the winds reverse direction, and the monsoon rainfall moves to the opposite hemisphere during the Austral summer.
What are active break cycles?
Intraseasonal variations occur with a typical period between active phases of between 20 and 50 days.
During the active phase copious rainfall occurs, while during the break phase little or no rainfall occurs.
