INDIAN MONSOON

AMAL. S || ME15B006

ME 5127: Introduction to Atmospheric Sciences

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INDEX

1. Abstract 3
2. Introduction 4
3. South-West Monsoon- Formation and Peak Period 5
4. The retreat of Monsoon – The North-East Monsoon 8
5. Impact of Climate Change on Monsoons 9
6. El Nino 10
a. Effects of El Nino on Global Climate 11
b. Effects of El- Nino on Indian Monsoon 11
7. Effects of Monsoon Over Agriculture and Economy 12
8. References 14

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 INDIAN MONSOON

Abstract

India is a country in which a large part of the population depends on agriculture for their livelihood.
A part of them still depends on the Monsoonal rains for watering their crops. In these
circumstances, the study on Indian Monsoon has a large importance. Here in this term paper, I
tried to study the importance of these Monsoon winds in the Indian economy and agriculture. It
begins with the mechanics of the formation of the Monsoons in general and specifically the Indian
Monsoon. More detailed study of the formation and course of the South-West monsoon and its
retreat- the north-east monsoon is included in this paper. Impact of Climate Change over monsoons
like the global warming etc are also discussed in this paper. Specific concentration is also taken in
the study of El Nino and its impact on the Indian Monsoon. Finally, here we discuss the impact of
monsoon winds over Indian Economy.

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Introduction

‘A monsoon is a tropical and subtropical seasonal reversal in both surface winds and
associated precipitation, caused by differential heating between a continental-scale land mass and
the adjacent ocean’-Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The word monsoon was
derived from the Arabic word Mausam which means season. These kinds of winds occur in many
places in the world like the Amazons, West Australia, Southeast Brazil, West Africa etc… The
Monsoons of South Asia which is commonly known as the Indian monsoon is one of the important
among them. The Indian monsoons which blow from the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal bring
heavy rainfall to the land. The rainfall along with these winds have more importance than the winds
blowing. The agriculture and the related activities of the subcontinent are heavily depending on
these Monsoon rains.

In the early days itself the Arabs, who were good sailors in the Indian ocean and in the Arabian
sea had good knowledge about the monsoonal winds and the rains associated with them. The
variation of the rainfall with space and time has a heavy impact on the resources of that region.

The Indian monsoon winds can be classified into two- South-west monsoon and North-east
monsoon. The south-west monsoon, which is also known as the Summer monsoon blows from the
south-west direction to the Indian peninsula during June-September. It carries a huge amount of
water vapor from the sea and causes heavy rainfall, especially on the places which are on the
western side of the western-Ghats like Kerala, Karnataka, Goa etc... and also over the north-eastern
regions. Similarly, the North-East monsoon wind which is also known as the winter monsoon
blows from the North-east direction during October to November. This wind brings rainfall to the
eastern coast of India.

The average rainfall in the Indian region is mostly dependant on the Summer Monsoon, so it has
more impact on agriculture and economy of India. So, the south-west monsoon is the focus of most
of the studies of the Monsoon in India.

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South West Monsoon-Formation and Peak Period
During the Summer of the Northern Hemisphere, ie during April and May, Indian subcontinent
heats up heavily especially because of the Himalayas in the north prevents the entry of the cold
winds from the north. There are three distinct areas where the temperature increases

a. Above the southern Bay of Bengal

b. Above the Indian peninsula.
c. Above the Tibetan region

These three regions together form a big heat source. An important factor of the heat source above
the Bay of Bengal is, it occurs at 5500 to 16500 meters above the sea level. It does not form at a
lower height. It is because of the release of condensation heat at the top of cumulonimbus clouds.
Condensation heat is the amount of heat required for the change water vapor to liquid water.

Similarly, a heat sink is formed over the Indian ocean. As a result, the monsoon winds are formed
during the summer season and it flows from the heat sink to the heat source. The south-west
monsoon reaches Sri Lanka by the end of May which is near to the southernmost tip of the Indian
mainland. Also, during May, the northern parts of India and the Tibetan region heats up more and
at about 6,000 meters an anticyclonic cell forms. Due to this a strong easterly wind start forming
in these regions and over the northern parts of India. As a result of the formation of the anticyclonic
cell, the monsoon winds change its course to the North.

The land of Indian peninsula heats up constantly as the sun moves northwards because of India’s
peninsular shape. This increased spread of heating, connected with the normal direction of heat
being carried by winds, results in a greater initial monsoonal activity over the Arabian Sea than
over the Bay of Bengal. The relative humidity rises above 70 percent in the coastal regions and
rainfall starts to begin.

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Source: Indian Meteorological department

During June,

• The easterly winds become strong at altitudes between 13700 and 16100 meters. It reaches
its maximum speed at about 15° N from China through India.
• In Arabia, its speed gets reduced and go down to a height of about 3000m.
• A stratospheric belt of very cold air occurs above the anticyclonic ridge, across southern
Asia at 30°–40° N and above 6,000 meters.

These upper-air features that arise so far away from the Equator are associated with the
surface monsoon and are absent when there is no monsoonal flow.

The location of the easterly wind determines the location of monsoon rains. The Monsoon Rains
appear ahead and left of the strongest winds. It also forms behind them to the right. The monsoon
winds are after all is a strong, humid, and unstable wind from the south-west direction. This
transport humidity of more than 80 percent and causes heavy showers. This is known as the ‘burst

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of monsoon’. This pattern advances to the northern parts of India. The amount of rain received
varies year to year.

Most rains occur in the Western Ghats in India, where the early monsoon winds with a lot of
moisture accumulate against the steep slopes and cause heavy rain.

The amount of rain received by each region depends on many factors. The topography of that
region is the most important among them. The Winds from the oceans which are rich with water
vapor flowing toward India below 6,000 meters changes its course in accordance with the Coriolis
effect. This becomes unstable over the hot land of the Indian Peninsula and rapid convection occurs
causing heavy rainfall with violent thunderstorms.

source: Indian Meteorological Department

Later, in June and July, the monsoon is strong and well-established with cloudy, warm, and moist
Weather conditions all over India. Rainfall varies between 400 and 500 mm, but topography causes
some extraordinary changes. Cherrapunji a village in Meghalaya which is on the slopes of Khasi
hills receives an average rainfall of 2730mm. Later these winds flow towards eastern sides of India
during July and August.

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The retreat of Monsoon – The North-East Monsoon

The intensity of the sunlight decreases by August and the temperature also begins to drop. As a
result, the flow of the south-west monsoon decreases slowly. Even at this time, the regions like
Cherrapunji receives very high rainfall(around 2000mm).However, during September, cool and
dry winds start to blow from the north parts of India. This wind will get deflected due to the
Coriolis effect. The rainfall becomes variable in many regions.

By early October, these winds are very frequent everywhere. At the end of the October, the entire
Indian is covered by the winds from the north. By the effect of the Coriolis force, these winds
change its course and become the northeast monsoon wind. These winds carry a large amount of
water vapor from the bay of Bengal region and cause rainfall in the eastern coasts of India like the
Chennai coast and also in the Deccan Plateau. Later it goes over Sri Lanka. The rains caused by
the northeast monsoon is very less compared to the rains caused by the south-west monsoon. So
south-west monsoon has more importance in the agriculture and economy of India.

Southwest monsoon across South Asia- Encyclopedia Britannica

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Impact of Climate Change on Monsoons

Source: Indian meteorological department

When we look at the statistics, we can find that the south-west monsoon is undergoing a gradual
decline. Since 1950, the amount of rainfall reduced of up to 10% in India. It has many reasons.
The primary reason is the weakening monsoon circulation as a result of the rapid heating in the
Indian Ocean and changes in land use and land cover. The monsoon is dependent on the
temperature difference between the ocean and the land. When the temperatures in the Indian
Ocean increases, it weakens the moisture carrying winds from the ocean to the land. The
reduction in the summer monsoon rainfall has a lot of consequences over India because at least
60% of the agriculture in India is still mostly rain-fed.

Recent studies on the monsoonal changes show that the land warming has increased during
2002-2014. This caused the revival of the strength of the monsoon winds and rainfall. Future
changes in the monsoon will depend on a competition between land and ocean—on which is
heating faster than the other.

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El Niño
El Niño is the common name of the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and is related with a
band of warm ocean water that forms in the east-central central equatorial Pacific region including
the western coast of South America. El Niño is followed by low air pressure on the eastern side of
Pacific and high air pressure in the western Pacific. The other type of El Niño which is known as
"La Niña" is the coll phase of El Niño with surface Temperature of the Sea in the eastern Pacific
below average and air pressures high in the eastern and low in western Pacific. The El Niño and
La Nina have major impacts on the temperature and rainfall all over the world. The countries which
heavily depend on agriculture and fishing are mostly affected by these changes. Initially, the word
El Niño was used to an annual weak warm ocean current that moves in the southern direction along
the coast of Ecuador and Peru during the end of December. However, over time the term has
changed and now it refers to the warm El Niño Southern Oscillation and is the heating of the sea
surface above-average sea surface temperatures in central and eastern Pacific Ocean. This heating
causes a change in the atmospheric winds with rainfall becoming reduced over Australia and
Indonesia. But it also causes the increase of tropical cyclones and rainfall over the central Pacific
Ocean. The surface trade winds at lower heights, which usually flows from east to west along the
equator, either weakens its strength or start flowing from the other direction.

It is known that the El Niño events have been occurring for thousands of years.For example, the
El Niño affected the Inca Empire in modern-day Peru. At that time many human sacrifices were
done order to prevent the rains. Usually, El Niño occurs at irregular intervals of two to seven years.
The average period interval is five years. And this anomaly lasts nine months to two years. When
this heating occurs for seven to nine months, it is known as El Niño "conditions"; when its duration
is larger, it is known as an El Niño "episode".

Since 1990 there have been at least 30 El Niño occurred. 1982-83, 1997–98 and 2014–16 events
among the strongest on record. 2002–03, 2004–05, 2006–07, 2009–10 and 2014–16 are the years
in which the El Niño events were observed after 2000.

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Effect of El Niño on global climate

The phenomenon of El Niño heavily affects the normal weather patterns global climate. It leads to
intense storms in some places and intense drought in some places like
• Affects the location of Tropical cyclones

• Unusual cooling of the eastern Atlantic Ocean.

• Increases heat flux towards the poles

Effects of El Niño on Indian Monsoon

El Niño has many adverse effects over the Indian Monsoon. Their relation is kind of inverse
relation. In the time of south-west monsoon, the Tradewinds coming from South America usually
blow in a westward direction towards Asia. Heating of the Pacific Ocean due to El Niño causes
weakening of these winds. As a result, moisture and heat content gets limited and results in
reduction and uneven distribution of rainfall across the Indian sub-continent.

Six of the most important droughts in India, all after 1871 are El Niño triggered droughts. The
recent droughts of 2002 and 2009 are also triggered by El Niño. It leads to a misconception that
the El Niño only leads to droughts in India. In some rare years, El Niño causes very heavy rainfall
in India. For example, the year 1997-1998, which was heavy El Niño year, but there was no
drought in India. We received excess rainfall that year. In 2002 the El Niño was just moderate, but
we experienced one of the worst droughts.

While considering the data of 135 years from 1880 to 2014, about 90% of all emerging El Niño
years have led to less rainfall and 65% of evolving El Niño years have caused droughts. From this
data, we can conclude that the El Niño years negatively influence the climate in India in terms of
Monsoon rain (there are exceptions). Generally, the rainfall is low in El Niño years compared to
non-El Niño years. This has a very much adverse effect on the agricultural and economic sector of
India.

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Effects of Monsoon on Agriculture and Economy

India is a country whose GDP largely depend upon the agricultural sector of the country. The
Indian farmers heavily depend on Monsoon rains for irrigation. About 70 percent of the Indian
people depend on agriculture, either directly or indirectly. It seems that around 58 percent of the
people do work in the agricultural sector of the country. 18 percentage of the GDP is from the
agricultural sector. The Indian agricultural calendar is also based on the arrival and withdrawal of
the Monsoon.

Southwest Monsoon, which occurs during June to September in India carries about 75 percent of
India’s annual rainfall. The cultivation of Kharif crops like rice, maize, peas, cotton etc heavily
depend on the amount of the rainfall during the south-west monsoon. Excellent rains during the
season result in plenty of crops which benefits the farmers.

Many places in the country still do not have manual irrigation. That big portion of the country’s
agricultural production is only dependant on the monsoon rains. In simple words, the Indian
economy has gained when we get good Monsoon rains. Weak monsoon rains will adversely affect
the economy as it affects the production. This will initiate problems like price hike and lower
industrial production etc.

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From this graph from Indian Meteorological Department, it is clearly evident of the relation
between Monsoon rains and the agricultural productivity.

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References

1. Encyclopedia Britannica – (https://www.britannica.com/science/Indian-monsoon)

2. The Indian Monsoon, GDP, and Agriculture by Sulochana Gadgil and Siddhartha Gadgil
3. Effects of Monsoon Season on India - https://worldview.stratfor.com/article/effects-
monsoon-season-india-dispatch
4. India Meteorological Department website – (http://www.imd.gov.in)
5. The Indian Monsoon and its variability by Sulochana Gadgil
6. El Niño: Catastrophe or Opportunity by Lisa Goddard and Maxx Dilley
7. The climate of India – Wikipedia Article-
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climate_of_India)
8. Monsoon of South Asia–Wikipedia Article –
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monsoon_of_South_Asia)

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