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MONSOON (Arabic Mausim, season)
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See also:MONSOON (Arabic Mausim, See also:season) , the name given to seasonal winds due to See also:differences of pressure between areas of See also:land and See also:sea, which are primarily caused by seasonal differences of temperature. Monsoons may be regarded as the seasonal analogue of the diurnal land and sea breezes. The See also:term is, however, also applied to seasonal winds which See also:change in direction on See also:account of the migrations of See also:wind-belts in the planetary circulation. During the season of rising temperature the See also:surface of the land warms more quickly, and becomes hotter than that of the sea, and during the season of falling temperature the See also:reverse is the See also:case. Barometric pressure tends to be higher over the colder region than over the warmer, and there is accordingly a tendency for See also:air to flow, in the See also:lower levels of the See also:atmosphere, from the former towards the latter. Thus there is in See also:general a See also:movement from land to sea during the See also:cold season, and from sea to land during the warm season. Within a See also:belt extending from ro to 15 degrees on each See also:side of the See also:equator, seasonal changes of temperature are insufficient in range to permit of the occurrence of temperature differences adequate to the development of true monsoons. In the higher latitudes of the See also:west wind-belt, and in the polar zones, the generally See also:low temperature does not favour the occurrence of wide differences between land and sea. Thus the conditions required for the occurrence of monsoonal winds are best satisfied in intermediate latitudes in the neighbourhood of the tropics. But, as in the case of land and sea breezes, the strength and See also:extension of the monsoon produced by the See also:action described depends to a large extent on the configuration of the land surface. When the land See also:area consists of a low See also:plain, or of a See also:plateau having a steep coastal See also:strip of small width, the circulation upon it tends to be See also:local, and to approximate to the typical " See also:continental " See also:climate of the temperate zones. Where, on the other See also:hand, the land slopes upwards gradually to a central See also:massif or See also:ridge the effect of the differences of temperature is, as it were, cumulative, and the monsoons may extend over large areas, affecting regions distant from those in which the causes producing them are directly operative, and the monsoon winds may develop See also:great strength. Ferrel (Popular See also:Treatise on the Winds) has compared the conditions in the two cases to those of a See also:stove with a See also:long See also:horizontal flue and with a See also:vertical or inclined flue of the same length. It is of course to be noted that the hot season monsoon is in general of greater strength than that of the cold season, because being usually a sea wind the air is fully charged with moisture, condensation takes See also:place as ascensional movement sets in on reaching the land, and the latent See also:heat set See also:free strengthens the upward current. The position, outline and See also:relief of the See also:continent of See also:Asia favour the development of monsoons to a much greater extent than any other See also:part of the See also:world; so much so that the climate of the whole of the See also:southern and eastern parts is entirely controlled by these winds, forming what is typically known as the monsoon region," a region having distinctly characteristic products. Monsoons See also:form an important See also:element in the climate of See also:Australia, western and southern See also:Africa, and the southern part of the See also:United States of See also:America, but with a few exceptions the monsoons of those regions are local in See also:character, modifying the prevailing winds of the planetary circulation (usually the See also:trade winds) for a longer or shorter See also:period every See also:year. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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