Monsoon Voyages
Monsoon Voyages is an interdisciplinary project that melds history with climate science. Our goal to is use historical records to enhance our understanding of long-term climate changes and their impacts.
The image below is from an original watercolour by J. Taylor, Malaya: A Ship and Many Small Boats off the Coast of Penang Island, 1879 available at The Wellcome Trust Image Collection.
What we do
Focused on the Malay Archipelago and the coasts and terrestrial environments of Singapore, West and East Malaysia and Sumatra, our project will create a baseline record of weather and extreme weather from the 19th century to the 1960s. We are especially interested in rainfall and periods of flood or drought and their impacts on the environment and society of this region.
History
Environmental and climate history can be tools to help us better understand our past, present and future. Historical archives are a wealth of information on past meteorological data, the extent and speed at which climate and weather are changing and, the effects of weather on society.
Climate Science
Historical rainfall data is crucial for understanding long-term climatic patterns and variability. In regions like Malaysia and Singapore, where rainfall plays a significant role in agriculture, water supply, and flood management, having access to detailed historical data can greatly improve the accuracy of climate reanalyses.
Extreme Weather
The history of extreme weather can tell us a great deal about the frequency and severity of extreme events and, their impact on societies. Understanding these trends in detail is vitally important for preparedness for the future.
How can you get involved?
We need help to transcribe and extract historical weather information from archival documents so that the raw data can be calibrated and used in our climate models. To start, we are working with oceanic and coastal weather records recorded in the ship logs of British Royal Navy ships that travelled from the UK to Southeast and East Asia. We are doing this through a crowdsourcing platform hosted by Zooniverse.
By signing up to the Monsoon Voyages Zooniverse site and helping us to extract data from ship logbooks, you will:
- Collaborate with fellow enthusiasts.
- Contribute to climate science.
- Volunteer for a worthy cause.
You will be transcribing logs from ships like the HMS Herald (above) which was sunk by Japanese forces in the Malacca Straits in the 1940s or, the HMS Birmingham (left) which was one of the ships that was famously involved in the hunt for the German battleship Bismark in 1941.
Watch, Read, Listen
Join Us!
Click here to join the team effort!