General Studies (Paper - 1) : Model Question & Answers

Question: List the four principal Monsoon regions in the world and account for their tropical latitudinal locations.

Answer: The word ‘Monsoon’ is derived from the Arabic word ‘Mausim’ (meaning “Season”) and has come to mean a seasonal reversal of winds, a general sea-to-land movement (called onshore flow) in summer and a general land-to-sea movement (called off-shore flow) in winter.

The two major Monsoonal systems are:
(a) The South Asian monsoon is characterised by a strong onshore flow in summer and a somewhat less pronounced offshore flow in winter.
(b) In East Asia, the outblowing winter monsoon is stronger than the inblowing summer monsoon.

The two minor monsoonal systems are:
(a) In Australia, north westerly summer winds bring the wet season to northern Australia; dry south-easterly flow dominates in winter.
(b) In West Africa, summer winds are from the southwest and winter winds are from the northeast.

Monsoon winds essentially represent unusually large latitudinal migrations of normal trade winds and westerly flow. The explanation for such extensive migrations, however, is not fully clear, and we are left with the realisation that the origin of monsoons is still not fully understood, although there is increasing evidence that it is associated with upper-air phenomena, particularly Jet Stream behaviour.

The tropical regions represent the best monsoonal circulations and one major reason may be a significant shift of Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) as seen in South Asian summer monsoon.