September 24, 2008
Bangkok - Thailand and China plan to sign an agreement to conduct a three-year study on climate changes in the Andaman Sea so that they can better predict the monsoon patterns.
"The aim is to understand the changing of monsoons," said Somkiat Khokiattiwong, a researcher at the Marine Biological Centre in Thailand's southern Phuket island.
Global warming has been blamed for increasingly unpredictable and fast-changing weather in the Southeast Asia.
"The Andaman is the birthplace of the monsoon. The study may also be able to help us understand cyclone patterns," he told AFP from Phuket.
Two annual monsoons in Thailand have brought floods and droughts to the country.
At least 16 people were killed by floods in the provinces when the low-pressure mass and southwest monsoon passed the north, northeast and east.
China will finance the deployment of buoys off the Andaman coast to collect data that will be analysed by scientists from both countries, according to AFP.
The agreement will be signed this Friday between Thai agency and China's First Institute of Oceanography in Beijing.
