CHAPTER III. 

 THE NORTHEAST MONSOON REGION 

 The Bay of Bengal and the Indo-Australlan Basin together com- 

 prise the monsoon region of the northeast Indian Ocean. Here^ as 

 in the Arabian Sea, the seasonal changes in direction of the monsoon 

 winds dominate the circulation pattern and the characteristics of 

 the surface water. A striking difference, though, is the far 

 greater amount of precipitation which occurs in this region compared 

 to the Arabian Sea. 



Circulation . The changing monsoons over the northern part of the 

 Indian Ocean cause an alternating current system with a yearly cycle. 

 From June to October a strong northeast drift current is developed 

 north of the Equator as a result of the southwest monsoon which blows 

 with considerable strength toward Burma. The northeast drift ex- 

 tends across the Bay of Bengal and leads to an extremely high piling 

 up of water along the eastern side of the bay during June. Part of 

 this water escapes by flowing south through the Andaman Sea and 

 around the west corner of Sumatra. A smaller part turns north and 

 sets up a cyclonic gyre in the northern part of the bay which lasts 

 from July to October. As a result of the gyre a southerly set 

 current is created along the northeast coast of India which meets 

 the northerly set current which flows along the Madras Coast. ^ In 

 the southern part of the bay between about 5°N and 10 °N the monsoon 

 current is set strongly toward the east during the period June to 

 October. The current which passes south of Ceylon merges partly 



^ Sailing Directions for the Bay of Bengal . H.O. Pub. No. 6h, 

 kth Ed. (Washington, D. C. : I95IJ. 



2J+ 



