Scientists evaluated air and sea processes that contribute to monsoon intensity from May 26 to June 26.
Oceanographers and meteorologists with the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory concluded an ambitious field research program in collaboration with the U.S. Office of Naval Research aimed at understanding the role of the Indian Ocean on monsoon intra-seasonal oscillations (MISO), June 26.
The project seeks to understand this major weather phenomenon that impacts more than one billion people living in the Indian subcontinent and the Bay of Bengal rim nations.
“Monsoons bring not only much needed water resources, but also major disasters resulting from severe weather, flooding, and storm surges,” said Hemantha Wijesekera, Ph.D., research oceanographer and lead principal investigator. “The goal is to study and quantify oceanic processes that regulate the intensity and propagation of the MISO in the region.”
Several times a year from May to October a process called MISO occurs in the atmosphere over the Indian Ocean, the western tropical Pacific Ocean, and surrounding land areas. This weather event brings periods of extremely wet and extremely dry conditions to the area, significantly affecting the people and the economy of those areas. Researchers do not currently know the extent to which the Indian Ocean affects the intensity of this process.
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