Thailand And China To Launch Monsoon Study

[Jai Dee]

Thailand and China to launch monsoon study

Thailand and China will sign an agreement this week to launch a three-year study of climatic changes in the Andaman Sea so they can better predict monsoon patterns, an official said Tuesday.

Some experts have blamed global warming for increasingly unpredictable and severe weather in Southeast Asia.

"The aim is to understand the changing of monsoons," said Somkiat Khokiattiwong, a researcher at the Marine Biological Centre in Thailand's southern Phuket island.

"The Andaman is the birthplace of the monsoon. The study may also be able to help us understand cyclone patterns," he told AFP from Phuket.

The two annual monsoons in Thailand have increasingly brought floods and droughts to the kingdom. At least 16 people were killed in Thailand this month after monsoon rain waters swept away thousands of homes.

China will finance the deployment of buoys off the Andaman coast to collect data that will be analysed by scientists from both countries, Somkiat said.

The memorandum of understanding will be signed Friday between his agency and China's First Institute of Oceanography in Beijing.

Source: AFP - 24 September 2008

[astral]

"The Andaman is the birthplace of the monsoon.

That statement worries me.

It sounds like the BBC weather mans view that "Monsoon means rain".

It might be true of the SW monsoon for Thailand which brings the rain,

but what about the NE Monsoon which brings the cool air from November to February.

Has he not noticed that the Monsoon also affects India and East Africa

and that originates from the Indian Ocean?

[dumball]

"The Andaman is the birthplace of the monsoon.

That statement worries me.

It sounds like the BBC weather mans view that "Monsoon means rain".

It might be true of the SW monsoon for Thailand which brings the rain,

but what about the NE Monsoon which brings the cool air from November to February.

Has he not noticed that the Monsoon also affects India and East Africa

and that originates from the Indian Ocean?

You forgot to mention where the MONSOONS come from that cause the DROUGHTS ??

[NanaFoods]

You forgot to mention where the MONSOONS come from that cause the DROUGHTS ??

A monsoon is a seasonal wind.

Astral did mention from the NE - check your map.

Edited September 24, 2008 by ChefHeat

[permanent_disorder]

"The Andaman is the birthplace of the monsoon.

That statement worries me.

It sounds like the BBC weather mans view that "Monsoon means rain".

It might be true of the SW monsoon for Thailand which brings the rain,

but what about the NE Monsoon which brings the cool air from November to February.

Has he not noticed that the Monsoon also affects India and East Africa

and that originates from the Indian Ocean?

some science geeks, weather station hermits and data collectors put their heads together for a 3 year long brainstroming session to study a part of that hugh complex climate change and monsoon. they want to know more about about the role the andaman plays, as part of the big jigsaw.

the project get introduced to the public. reporter writes a story about. put all details in a short version is not possible and quotes are always "good" in news. for the narrative flow of the news. a standard element of news. but those scientist and researchers are talk-a-lots. talk to much for the use in "news". so they got cut-up and edited to only few sentence that contain a keyword.

someone at AFP does some more editing and it's news now and got posted at TVforum.

and the TVforum climate experts reads it.

about "that statement" is nothing to worry about. i guess he, Khun Somkiat, talked also about a lot of other aspects, the monsoon in india, climate change on a global scale and even about different theories on "global warming". but he don't got quoted. i got amused by this sentence "Some experts have blamed global warming for increasingly unpredictable and severe weather in Southeast Asia."

blame the communication medium, the mass media, and the 'quality' of certain news. be worried about that, or just take it easy. that "news" is not from the National Geographic Mag.

and how people read news, see:"The two annual monsoons in Thailand have increasingly brought floods and droughts to the kingdom." is written down. it's all there.

if i check the map it's probably the SW monsoon that comes over the Andaman before it reach thailand what this study is about.

and for a lot of people the word monsoon is almost synonym with monsoon rain. or "monsoon season" almost synonym with "rain season" and "monsoon season" the opposite of "dry season". for a quick empirical study compare the number of results you get in a google search for "monsoon rain", "monsoon sun", "monsoon floods" and "monsoon droughts".

is not only your BBC weather man got it "wrong."

monsoon can have different meanings, it's a) the that windsystem that change direction seasonally, the wind that brings heavy rainfall in the summer, c) the season when the wind blows that brings that heavy rainfall -aka rain season and d) just the rainfall that comes seasonally .

back to topic: China and Thailand launch monsoon study sounds so great but what will actually happen.

the First Institute of Oceanography (look at the odd web site) from china pay for some buoys and the Porter Ricks of the Phuket Marine Biological Center is responsible for the regular maintenance.

maybe they find a connection between water currents and temperature with that "increasingly unpredictable and severe weather " 3 years statistical data will be not enough to predict anything but as he said maybe they will find some patterns like a certain constellation with other weather datas was always followed by a tropical storm and than continue to study to make severe weather situations more predictable.

[astral]

You forgot to mention where the MONSOONS come from that cause the DROUGHTS ??

The monsoon winds that bring the rain to Thailand, ie SW Monsoon, come from the ocean.

It is when they do not arrive, or do not bring enough rain, that there is a drought.

[dumball]

You forgot to mention where the MONSOONS come from that cause the DROUGHTS ??

The monsoon winds that bring the rain to Thailand, ie SW Monsoon, come from the ocean.

It is when they do not arrive, or do not bring enough rain, that there is a drought.

So the actual 'Monsoon' (wind) does not cause the droughts , it is the lack of 'Precipitation' that causes the droughts , now that makes sense to me .