Off the southwestern coast of India, a pool of unusually warm water forms, reaching 100 feet below the surface. Soon after, the air above begins to churn, triggering the summer monsoon season with its life-giving yet sometimes catastrophic rains.

While the sailing ships that once plied these waters sought spices, silk and porcelain, the Thompson seeks data—lots of it.

To explain how the summer monsoon’s engine gets started, the team gathers data from the “transition layer”—where the ocean’s spray, turbulence, current and evaporation meets the atmosphere’s solar radiation, wind and humidity.

Contemporary monsoon data collection has become a comprehensive, multi-platform enterprise, integrating remote sensing technologies like radar and satellites with vessel-launched weather balloons—a technology first used in the 1800s.

“Data is only as good as the equipment that collects it,” said Senior Research Engineer Scott Coppersmith. “My job is to get the equipment set up, make sure it’s working properly, and fix anything that breaks.”

For this research voyage, three shipping containers—massive rectangular steel boxes usually seen on the back of semis or stacked on tankers—were packed full of equipment and shipped from Notre Dame’s campus to the Mississippi Gulf Coast, then on to Phuket, Thailand, where the team was waiting. Instead, the equipment containers wound up in Singapore.

“After a week of waiting, our ship—also delayed—finally docked in Phuket,” said Coppersmith. “We’ve got a crane, and all the equipment is ready to set up. That’s when the storms rolled in—one after the next.”

 

“The waves were 15 feet high. The ship was fine, but all our equipment, along with anybody trying to set it up, was getting drenched with salt water,” said Coppersmith. The spray soaked through the protective layer of tape and boxes, starting fires and melting electrical cords, requiring immediate repairs to keep the data collection going.

Luckily, not all the equipment installation was subject to the vagaries of weather and international shipping. Years before, the team had adapted the typically land-based Doppler lidar and radar machines for use at sea.

While on board the Thompson, the team successfully collected terabytes of data from an array of atmospheric instruments, such as the radar and lidar machines mentioned above, as well as from oceanic instruments such as wavegliders and weather station buoys.

At the end of the voyage, the scientists and engineers shared and cross referenced their data. Once its accuracy is verified, it will be used to model the mechanics driving the summer monsoon—a weather event responsible for supplying nearly eighty percent of Southeast Asia’s water needs.

“The Thompson voyages have provided unprecedented information on air-sea interactions during the Indian summer monsoons,” said Fernando. “The results of this research will help us understand the underlying physics and more accurately predict when, where and how these weather patterns begin and travel.”

—Karla Cruise, Notre Dame Engineering; Photos and video courtesy of Selina Bolella and Scott Coppersmith

Originally published by Karla Cruise at environmentalchange.nd.edu on September 15, 2025.