Monsoons: Wet, Dry, Repeat...
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- Visualizations by:
- Greg Shirah
- View full credits
This visualization shows the Asian monsoon and how it develops using observational and modeled data. It also showns some of the impacts.
This video is also available on our YouTube channel.
The monsoon is a seasonal rain and wind pattern that occurs over South Asia (among other places). Through NASA satellites and models we can see the monsoon patterns like never before. Monsoon rains provide important reservoirs of water that sustain human activities like agriculture and supports the natural environment through replenishment of aquifers. However, too much rainfall routinely causes disasters in the region, including flooding of the major rivers and landslides in areas of steep topography.
This visualization uses a combination of NASA satellite data and models to show how and why the monsoon develops over this region. In the summer the land gets hotter, heating the atmosphere and pulling in cooler, moisture-laden air from the oceans. This causes pulses in heavy rainfall throughout the region. In the winter the land cools off and winds move towards the warmer ocean and suppressing rainfall on land.
Credits
Please give credit for this item to:
NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio
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Animator
- Horace Mitchell (NASA/GSFC)
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Visualizers
- Greg Shirah (NASA/GSFC) [Lead]
- Alex Kekesi (Global Science and Technology, Inc.)
- Lori Perkins (NASA/GSFC)
- Trent L. Schindler (USRA)
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Scientists
- Dalia B Kirschbaum (NASA/GSFC)
- Gail Skofronick Jackson (NASA/GSFC)
- George Huffman (NASA/GSFC)
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Producer
- Ryan Fitzgibbons (KBR Wyle Services, LLC)
Missions
This visualization is related to the following missions:Datasets used in this visualization
IMERG
CPC (Climate Prediction Center) Cloud Composite
Global cloud cover from multiple satellites
See more visualizations using this data setSoil Moisture (Collected with the GEMS sensor)
GEMS stands for Goddard Earth Modeling System. It is also known as the NSIPP Global Climate Model.
See more visualizations using this data setNote: While we identify the data sets used in these visualizations, we do not store any further details, nor the data sets themselves on our site.