The oceans on our planet were the place that has always been the source of our information both about the entire Earth and about the weather phenomena that characterize it. The bulk of the “research” was carried out by sailors, since their lives depended on their knowledge of the seas and their weather characteristics.
So, it is the data accumulated by sailors that gave the basis for the study of the trade winds. In addition, they also revealed the so-called "horse latitudes", where the winds were often absent altogether. The seafaring data made us understand what a monsoon is.
There are places in the coastal areas where the movement of air masses is rare constancy. Monsoons are just a kind of winds of this kind. In many ways, the climate in tropical latitudes depends on them. This is especially noticeable in the coastal areas of the Indian Ocean.
But how to understand what a monsoon is if you do not know the features of their education? To understand this process, you must understand that atmospheric pressure is much higher above the mainland. As you may know from the most banal course of school physics, the wind is formed just because the air masses move from areas with low pressure to latitudes with higher pressures.
But monsoons are formed in a slightly different way. In the summer, the same Hindustan and surrounding areas of the rest of the Eurasian continent become very hot, which ensures a decrease in pressure. But over the ocean, it becomes noticeably higher.
Here is the answer to the question of what is a monsoon. This is a powerful tropical wind blowing from the ocean to land. Moreover, it is extremely wet, as it is "saturated" with water evaporated from the surface. Therefore, over land, the clouds that arose in an incredible natural “laboratory” erupt in heavy and warm rains.
It is the monsoons that give coastal regions high fertility, but the inhabitants of these lands are “obliged” to them to overwhelm all floods when water flows wash entire cities into the sea.
Everything changes in the winter, when the so-called “land” monsoons come, blowing from the dry highlands of the mainland. Unlike their “colleagues, ” they were not saturated with the moisture of the ocean.
Therefore, these winds cause severe droughts, which often continue until the next rainy period. Thus, the monsoon (wet) season does not last long, but the amount of precipitation during this time is such that it allows the vegetation to survive until the next year.
It must be said that almost a quarter of the world's population lives in zones with such a peculiar climate. In the Northern Hemisphere they have been living in the rains since June, and the latter come to the south in December.
It is not by chance that we talk about a large amount of precipitation. So, Cherrapunji in India is the “most-most” in terms of the amount of water falling from the sky. For every day when a monsoon reigns over this territory, a photo of the manifestations of which is in the article, a whole meter of rain falls there!
Thus, these winds play a fundamental role in the formation of the climate of the whole region. Without them, the lives of millions of people would have been impossible.
Now you know exactly what a monsoon is.
