Monsoons: Wet, Dry, Repeat...

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.

Water evaporates from the ocean, then condenses into clouds and heavy rainfall that winds carry across the region.

The monsoon rains provide important reservoirs of water, including increased soil moisture, which sustains human activities like agriculture and supports the natural environment.

Too much rain is a trigger for flooding. Notice the floods snaking down rivers in the region.

Landslides can be triggered when extreme rainfall intersects topography; this is especially prevalent during the monsoon season.

In the summer, moisture-laden winds blow towards Asia from the ocean, carrying rainfall. In the winter, dry winds blow away from the continent.

In the summer the land gets hotter, heating the atmosphere and pulling in cooler air from the oceans. In the winter the land cools off and winds move towards the warmer ocean. Notice that there is a day-night temperature difference that varies around the seasonal averages.

The diurnal cycle is seen as heat from the sun moves around the Earth. Surface temperatures from the MERRA atmospheric model are shown.

MERRA surface temperatures color bar (blue, green, yellow, red)

range: 243.15 to 283.15 Kelvin

GPM/IMERG liquid precipitation color bar (green, yellow, red)

ranges: 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.5, 1.0, 2.0, 3.0, 5.0, 10, 20, 50 mm/hr

GPM/IMERG frozen precipitation color bar (cyan, blue, magenta)

ranges: 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.5, 1.0, 2.0, 3.0, 5.0, 10, 20, 50 mm/hr

Soil ,oisture index color bar

range: 0 to 1

Global Flood Monitoring System color bar (transparent, blue, magenta)

ranges: 0., 0.0, 10, 20, 50, 100, 200, 9999

Landslides are indicated with a circular glyph