Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Figure 4.7.
A sea breeze is caused by the movement of cool air from sea to land during
the day and from land to sea at night.
This principle also applies to winds at a continental scale (trade winds, monsoons,
polar winds, etc.). For example, during the South Asian winter, the land north of the
Himalayas cools, and cold, dry air moves southwards towards the warmer Indian Ocean.
This causes what is known as the 'dry monsoon', affecting northern India, Pakistan, and
Bangladesh. During the summer months, as northern Asia becomes hotter than the Indian
Ocean, moisture-laden air is drawn from the ocean towards the hot plains of northern Asia.
This causes the 'wet monsoon', which particularly affects southern India, Sri Lanka, and
Indonesia. Similarly, superheated air deep in the North American continent draws cooler
