Monsoon CPR Paper

by

The Professor

Introduction

The Indian Monsoon ({link: bMon_map.jpg}figure 1) happens most summers. Farmers in India ({link: bMonFarmers.jpg}figure 2) depend on the monsoon to water their crops. Sometimes the monsoon fails. This causes great hardship.

The monsoon is a reversal of winds between summer and winter. In summer, moist winds blow from the ocean over the land, and in the winter, dry winds blow from land to the ocean. The most rainfall occurs in the summer [:(Cmnt by william prothero: In this paper, the author approaches the topic like a book report. There is little data used and figures and explanations are textbook like.):] .

Methods

I have gotten figures from the worldwide web that show data about the Indian Monsoon. These figures have been uploaded to EarthEd and are linked to this paper [:(Cmnt by william prothero: Pretty minimal explanation of methods. This is the author's approach, but the methods are inadequate for the assignment.):] .,

Observations

{link: bMonWind2.jpg}Figure 3 [:(Cmnt by william prothero: The wind figure is really a drawing made by an illustrator and, while representative of wiind data, it is not real data. ):] shows the change in winds that happen in summer and winter. The winds blow from the north in the winter and from the south in the summer. The north winds are dry, so provide little moisture, while the south winds have travelled over the adjacent ocean and have picked up a lot of moisture that drops as rain over India.

{link: bMonPrecip2.jpg}Figure 4 [:(Cmnt by william prothero: This is a nice precipitation plot, but it is for the entire year. The author could have saved this section if he/she would have made the point that most of the precipitation occurs during the summer season, but then there would have had to be a data figure showing this. There is almost no data in this section. ):] shows a plot of precipitation for India. This figure shows that the rain is quite high in certain regions of India. This is caused by the monsoon winds that blow over the ocean.

Interpretations

I interpret that rainfal data as coming from a reversal of the prevailing winds between the summer and winter seasons. {link: bMon_mdl.jpg}Figure 5 shows a model that explains why the monsoon occur [:(Cmnt by william prothero: This section is almost completely lacking in valid interpretation. The wind reversal is mentioned, but not reason for it is given. ):] s.

This means that in the summer there is a large increase in rainfall and in the winter it is much dryer. Thus the monsoon is a major climatic feature that affects agriculture throughout the Indian subcontinent [:(Cmnt by william prothero: At least the fact that the monsoon occurs in the summer is mentioned. However, there is very little use of data in this sectioon and no conceptual sketch. ):] .

References

1. Monsoon model: http://www.es.flinders.edu.au/~mattom/regoc/images/11mons.gif [:(Cmnt by william prothero: One link is ok, but there are other figures where the URL is not given. Overall, this is a book report type paper and misses the idea of the assignment by a wide mark. ):]

Figure 1. Map showin India and the global wind patters that create the monsoon. {fig: bMon_map.jpg}

 

Figure 1. Farmers in India planting rice. {fig: bMonFarmers.jpg}

 

Figure 3. Wind patterns in the winter (top) and summer(bottom). {fig: bMonWind2.jpg}

 

Precipitation for India {fig: bMonPrecip2.jpg}

 

Model of a monsoon, showing how the monsoon occurs. {fig: bMon_mdl.jpg}