The Bay of Bengal has a surprisingly large influence on the world. It nurtures the South Asian summer monsoon, a tremendous ocean-atmosphere-land phenomenon that delivers freshwater to more than a third of the human population
on this planet. During summer, southwesterly winds gather moisture from the ocean and carry it deep inland over the
Indian subcontinent, bringing welcome rains to a parched land. During winter, the winds reverse to northeasterly, and
the ocean circulation responds by dispersing the terrestrial freshwater run off concentrated in the northern part of the
bay