Q)Give a detailed description of winter monsoon.

(10)

It is important to consider the winter monsoon for 2 reasons:-

a)It corresponds to the night cycle of the sea breeze & like the summer monsoon is an
important component of the global monsoon.
b)It has the capacity to generate seasonal rainfall over the southern part of indian
peninsula,Sri Lanka,Malaysia & Indonesia.
The onset of winter monsoon is not clearly defined & at times there is no distinction
between withdrawal of summer monsoon & the onst of winetr monsoon.there is a period
of transition of about a week for the winter rains to st in Tamil Nadu.Tamil Nadu
experiencez north-east monsoon from october to december.Intense convection over
Indinesia generates pecipitation & releases of latent heat subsequently.this is an are aof
ascend coresponding to the rising limb of the hadley's cell.the ascending air spreads to
the north & south which is'nt possible for theascending air over tibet during hte summer
monsoon because the northwards air movement was checked by the Himalayas.
the northward moving air of the ascended heat by the rising limb of the Hadley's
cell descends over the intense anticyclonic region over siberia &China.the southward
branch of the movng air is associated with return current that forms Australian
monsoons.Sub-tropical westerly jet stream is acharacyeristics feature of the
wintermonsoon.During the winter monsoons the descending branch of the Walker's cell lie
over the Pacific but this is'nt well documented so far.
Rains during the winter monsoon occurs in spells,accompanied by strong
surges of cold air that emanates from a large anticyclone results indevelopment over
Siberia & China.Ocaisonally ,out bak of cold air from the results in development of a family
of low pressure systems over the equatorial regions of the South China sea & western
Pacific which moves slowly westwards bringing widespread rain over Sarawak & east
coastal malaysia.Sometimes these low pressure systems intensify into depessions with
heavy rains often causing severe floods.
Meteorologists wonder the cause of intensificaion of these low pressure
systems.The interraction of low pressure systems & out break of cold air from Asian
anticyclone is not well understood.Many sientists have tried to introduce the concept of
instability at the interface of the two air masses having different meteorological
characteristics.
the first air mass is extension of Asian Anticyclone while the second one is
generated by the northern near-equatorial trough.although measurements of upper winds
suggests that on occassions necssary conditions for intensifying an incipient disturbance
are satisied but the scientists have'nt been able to show that these conditions are self
sufficient for disturbance formation.
NORMAL WEATHER CONDITIONS DURING WINTER MONSOONS:-
Storms & depressions:-Like malaysia Indonesia,peninsular India receives rain in winter du
to wstward passage of storms & depressions.the vorticec which bring rains are remnants
of low pressure systems that efect Malaysia & crossover to the Bay of Bengal & progress
towards Tamil Nadu.the tracks of these storms 7 depressions lie along 5(degees)N -
15(degees)N.Storms with tracks south of 15(degrees)N,enter the Arabian sea after
traversing the peninsular India.As the storms enter over the Arabian sea area it intensifies
& agood number of them recurves towards northern sector of the west coastal India.The
dependence of winter rain on number of cyclonic storms 7 depresins is very prounounced
in southern indian peninsula,which is more true for coastal districts than in the interior
parts of peninsular india.After the occurence of the highest seasonal rains betwen october
to december of about 75cm along south-eastern coastal tamil Nadu 7 southern adjoining
parts of Andhra pradesh is followed by gradual decrease in pecipitation except for a small
area in north-east of Kerala wher precipitation is caused due to western ghats.
Normal pessure:-
During the north-east monsoons ,a large system of low pressure over the central parts of
Bay of Bengal which often extends to Indian peninsula by the way of a trough & into
centralsectors of the Arabian sea as low pressure system.there is a progressive shift from
normal wind pattern occur whenever there is a depressions or tropical cyclone in bay of
bengal.General orientation of low pressure system & fluctuations i it's intensity govern
rainfall.Rain in southern peninsula of India is good when trough is welldefined & seasonal
low over the Bay of Bengal.
Normal winds:-
the mean upper winds over the peninsular India is from north to south or from north-east
in lower levels of the atmosphere upto 1.5 Km over the north-easterly flow is the easterly
winds,above 3 Km wind flows in southerly direction & is a part of circulation around a
large anticyclonic cell over Bay of Bengal.there is no easterly jet stream over peninsular
india.Wide variations from mean winds on daily weather charts are linked with passage of
depressions or Tropicl cyclones.Any distinct relationship between location of anticyclonic
cell over the middle & upper reaches of the atmosphere & rainfall over peninsular India
could'nt be established.
Normal temperature distribution:-
warmest areas in Tamil Nadu are located approximately near the 10(degrees)N &
temperature decreases northwards.the northward temperature gradient increases steadily
with the height upto 300 mb at which level the temperature drops by as much as
8(degrees)celcius as we move north from 20(degrees)N to 30 (degrees)N.