What is monsoon? Detailed answer

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What is monsoon? Detailed answer

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What is monsoon?

The word "monsoon" comes from an Arabic word meaning "season (of rain)" in translation. It is used in relation to those climatic zones where in the warm season the winds blow from the sea to the land, and in the cold - vice versa. In these regions, during the warm season, there are usually heavy rains, and during the cool season, drought reigns.

What causes such seasonal changes in the weather? The thing is that land heats up and cools down faster than sea water.

For example, in Central and South Asia, spring comes faster than in the seas adjacent to it. Summer on the continent is much warmer than in the waters of the Indian Ocean in the south and the Pacific in the east. Higher temperatures create an area of low pressure above the continent, into which air masses rush from the ocean spaces, carrying precipitation. These winds are called summer monsoons.

In autumn, the air cools faster over the Asian continent, which leads to the appearance of a high pressure area above it. As a result, the wind begins to blow from the arid regions of Central Asia towards the seas. These winds are called winter monsoons. The climate in the regions of Central and South Asia has a pronounced monsoonal character due to the huge size of this continent.

Previously, when people sailed on sailing ships, they skillfully used the winter and summer monsoons. That is why sailors usually sailed from India to Africa in the winter and returned back in the summer.

Author: Likum A.

Random interesting fact from the Great Encyclopedia:

How is ocean depth measured?

Scientists who study the sea are called oceanographers. Since the depths of the ocean are dark and cold, scientists don't know much about them. Some parts of the ocean floor were studied only through the windows of research submarines and through the eyepieces of bathyscaphes made specifically for studying the depths of the sea, but still this information is clearly not enough. One of the problems of interest to oceanographers is the depth of the ocean. Measuring it is called "listening to depth".

In the old days, measurement was done using a rope with a load tied to it, which was lowered into the water. Later, very thin wire was used for this, such as the one from which piano strings are made. Today, scientists can get a much more accurate idea of the depth of the ocean floor with a single invention called an echo sounder. It uses echo to study the ocean floor. A device installed on board the ship sends a sound signal. Sound travels through the water at a speed of about one mile per second. It is reflected from the bottom and caught on the way back by a special device.

The deeper the water, the longer it takes for the echo to reach the side of the ship. A modern echo sounder sends ultrasonic waves to the bottom. Then the instruments register the echo in the form of a black line on a sheet of special paper. Usually this paper contains the decoding of these signs in fathoms (a fathom is 1,8 meters). With the help of an echo sounder, you can easily determine the depth of the sea. But the device can do more than just that. He can draw a detailed line of the seabed under the ship by listening to the bottom every few meters along the ship's course.

If a ship passes over a submarine, the echo sounder registers its exact shape. If the bottom is flat, the echo sounder will depict it the same way. The echo sounder will not miss even a small unevenness of the bottom less than a meter high!

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