Southern India

The lack of clouds over India on February 6, 2006, can be attributed to southwest Asia’s winter monsoon. In the winter, the land and the air over it are much cooler than the ocean. As warm air rises over the ocean, cool air from the land rushes in to take its place. This sets up a wind that carries dry air from the land southwest over India. The air such winds carry contain little moisture to form clouds, but the few clouds that have formed illustrate the southwest pull of the wind. The clouds in the upper left corner of the image extend diagonally from northeast to southwest in line with the winter winds. In the summer, such of view of India would be impossible. During the summer monsoon, cool, wet air from the ocean rushes in to replace rising hot air over the land, resulting in extensive cloud cover and heavy rain.

The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite captured this photo-like image. Red dots throughout the scene mark the locations of fires.

---

Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team, NASA/GSFC

Published February 8, 2006
Data acquired February 6, 2006

Source:

Terra > MODIS

Collection:

Visible Earth