Himalayan climate   Satellite image of the Himalayan region taken by Envisat's MERIS instrument     The Himalayan region is an area of extreme variety in terms of weather, climate, and the resulting landscapes.   Envisat's satellite image on the left shows the distribution of different landscapes in the Himalayan region. The southern part is lush and predominantly wet, while northward the land becomes increasingly dry and bare. There are two main reasons for the development of this south-north axis. The first of these relates to the Himalayas themselves. The high mountain range acts like a wall and obstructs the passage of the south-western Summer Monsoon. The second reason is the Summer Monsoon itself, which brings tropical storms and copious amounts of rain to the southern Himalayan region. The case studies provided here deal with the climatic processes and the resulting weather situations and landscapes. You will find useful information on weather and climate in general and the specific situations in the Himalayan region in the Background section.     This case study includes: a background section a worksheet introduction exercises You can access them by clicking on the links on the right.       Last update: 30 October 2013 Himalaya  •  Background (http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Eduspace_Weather_EN/SEM7XXJTYRF_0.html) Exercises  •  Introduction (http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Eduspace_Weather_EN/SEMZYXJTYRF_0.html)  •  Manual exercises (http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Eduspace_Weather_EN/SEM17YJTYRF_0.html)  •  Study of water vapour in the atmosphere (http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Eduspace_Weather_EN/SEMY9ZJTYRF_0.html)  •  The summer monsoon and its floods (http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Eduspace_Weather_EN/SEM9EZJTYRF_0.html) Links  •  Meteosat images (http://www.eumetsat.int)  •  Weather broadcast worldwide (http://weather.edition.cnn.com/weather/intl/forecast.jsp)  •  Climate system (http://www.espere.net/index.html)  •  CARE (http://www.careinternational.org.uk/)  •  DLR - Basemapping of Dhaka (http://www.zki.caf.dlr.de/applications/2004/bangladesh/bangladesh_flood_2004_en.html) Eduspace - Software  •  LEOWorks 3 (http://esamultimedia.esa.int/multimedia/LEOWorks3.exe)  •  ArcExplorer (http://esamultimedia.esa.int/multimedia/eduspace/ae2setup.zip) Eduspace - Download  •  Climate zones (PDF) (http://esamultimedia.esa.int/docs/eduspace/climatezones.pdf)  •  Climate diagrams (PDF) (http://esamultimedia.esa.int/docs/eduspace/Diagramm.pdf)  •  Temperature and precipitation diagrams (PDF) (http://esamultimedia.esa.int/docs/eduspace/himalaya_climate_temperature.pdf)  •  Ready-made diagrams (PDF) (http://esamultimedia.esa.int/docs/eduspace/Diagramm_fill.pdf)  •  Himalayas water vapour images (ZIP) (http://esamultimedia.esa.int/docs/eduspace/MERIS_WV_2003.zip)  •  SPOT XS images of Bangladesh (ZIP) (http://esamultimedia.esa.int/docs/eduspace/flood88.zip)  •  Landsat images of Bangladesh (ZIP) (http://esamultimedia.esa.int/docs/eduspace/ganges1989_2000.zip)  •  Shape files for Bangladesh (ZIP) (http://esamultimedia.esa.int/docs/eduspace/shapes_bangladesh.zip)  •  Map of climate zones (http://www.esa.int/images/climatemap,0.jpg)