The monsoon experiment

Abstract

The paper describes the observation programme of the Monsoon Experiment (MONEX) of 1979. This experiment was a sub-programme of the First GARP Global Experiment (FGGE) under the aegis of the International Council of Scientific Unions (ICSU) and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).

A number of countries contributed to the success of the experiment. Five research ships from the USSR and three research aircraft from the USA took part, while France contributed a ship and a constant level balloon programme. India contributed four ships and one aircraft. The observation programme over the country was intensified.

Of the space based platforms, a geostationary satellite launched by the USA-GOES Indian Ocean was specially moved to cover the MONEX region. Another geostationary satellite launched by Japan provided cloud imageries for the eastern sector of the MONEX region.

The paper describes some of the prominent features of the monsoon of 1979, which were observed by this experiment. Strong temperature gradients were recorded by the Indian aircraft, and the GOES cloud vectors provided valuable data on the onset of the monsoon.

Finally, the paper describes diagnostic studies with a simple primitive equation model. Those monsoon features, which the model was able to simulate, are described, and its extension to the study of other facets of the monsoon is discussed.