Investigation of the north-east monsoon characteristics in the region of South East Asia using ERS wind scatterometer data

The north-east (NE) monsoon which occurs every year from November to February is a cyclical wave-like air mass that blows from the Asian continent to the Indian Ocean, South East Asia and Australia. The cold winter in the Asian continent creates a high pressure area and concurrently, a hot southern hemisphere summer over most parts of Australia, which constitutes a relatively low pressure area. This causes the cold and strong wind to blow from the north-east direction of the Asian continent to the low pressure region. This region is affected by the monsoon in many ways, such as drought, floods etc. Traditionally, there are very few observations, especially in the open ocean, so it is necessary to use remote sensing satellites such as the European Remote Sensing Satellite (ERS) equipped with a wind scatterometer to detect wind velocity over the ocean. Scatterometry measurements provides near surface wind information which is important for safe routing of ships, design of off-shore platforms and coastal defences. Data from 1st February 1996 to 14th February 1996 were collected. With the use of PV-WAVE software, the authors generated visual displays of the wind condition from the scatterometer data. By analysing the visual displays they were able to observe general wind field changes during one surge event of the north-east monsoon.