178 



SOLAR CHANGES OF TP:MPERATURE. 



heated vapors produced ])y the prominences, which are most numerous 

 when the solar atmosphere is most disturbed, * * * 



The Indian meteorologists have abimdantly proved that the increased 

 radiation from the sun on the upper air currents at maximum is accom 

 panied by a lower temperature in the lower strata, and that with this 

 disturbance of the normal temperature we must expect pressure 

 changes. Chambers was the first to show that large spotted area was 

 accompaiiied by low pressures over the land surface of India. (Abnor- 

 mal Variations, p. 1.) "■ '^' "■ 



INDIAN KAINFALI.. SOUTHWKST MONSOON, 187T-1S8*). 



It will be clear from wliat has been stated that our object in studying 

 rainfall was to endeavor to ascertain if the + and — temperature pulses 

 in the sun were echoed by + and — pulses of rainfall. The Indian 

 rainfall was taken first, not only because in the Tropics we ma}^ expect 

 the phenomena to lie the simplest, but because the regularity of the 

 Indian rains had broken down precisely when the widened line obser- 

 vations showed a most remarkable departure from the normal. * * * 



The first investigation undertaken was the study of the rainfall tallies 

 published by the meteorological department of the government of 

 India. These were brought together by Blandford down to the year 

 1886.^ As the widened line observations were not begun at Kensing- 

 ton till 18TU, the discussion was limited in the first instance to the 

 period 1877-1886, inclusive, embracing the following changes in solar 

 temperature, occurring, as will be seen, between two conditions of 

 mean solar temperature: 



* ■'■■ * It soon became evident that in many parts of India the + 

 and — conditions of solar temperature were accompanied by -j- and — 

 pulses producing pressure changes and heavy I'ains in the Indian Ocean 

 and the surrounding land. These occurred generally in the first ^^ear 

 following the mean condition, that is, in 1877-78 and 1882-83, dates 

 approximating to, but followed by, the minimum and maximum periods 

 of sun spots. 



Meldrum, as far back as 1881. '^ referred to "the extreme oscillations 

 of weather changes in different places, at the turning points of the 

 curves representing the increase and decrease of solar activity." 



It was especially in regions such as Malabar and the Konkan, when 

 the monsoon strikes the west coast of India, that the sharpness and 

 individuality of these pulses was the most obvious. * * * 



^ Indian Meteorological Memoirgi, Vol. III. 

 *0n the Relations of Weather to Mortality, and 



m the Climatic Effect of Forests. 



