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Forecasting Monsoons

October 11, 2018

MIT-WHOI Joint Program student Gualtiero Spiro Jaeger snapped this photo from the research vessel Thomas G. Thompson in the Bay of Bengal as a wall of storm clouds swept overhead. Scientists from institutions across the United States, India, and Sri Lanka were aboard to study how monsoon winds, rain, and river runoff affect the Indian Ocean—and vice versa. Supported by the U.S. Office of Naval Research and the Indian Ministry of Earth Science, the mission aims to gain new insights into forecasting still-unpredictable monsoon rains, which billions of people depend on to irrigate their crops. (Photo by Gualtiero Spiro Jaeger, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)