Mesoscale interactions between biosphere and atmosphere in Amazonia

• Grant number: 97/09926-9
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• Duration: June 01, 1998 - October 31, 2001
• Field of knowledge: Physical Sciences and Mathematics - Geosciences - Meteorology
• Principal Investigator: Maria Assunção Faus da Silva Dias
• Grantee: Maria Assunção Faus da Silva Dias
• Host Institution: Instituto de Astronomia, Geofísica e Ciências Atmosféricas (IAG). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

This project is part of a broader international proposal the “Large-scale biosphere-atmosphere experiment in Amazonia - LBA “, lead by Brazilian scientists with the cooperation of north and south americans and europeans. Within LBA there is a need to study the biosphere-atmosphere interactions in regional scale, or mesoscale. A focus on the local effects of deforestation as well as on the regional response to large scale forcing, within the scope of LBA, is the objective of the present proposal. The fundamental questions of the mesoscale interactions between biosphere and atmosphere in Amazonia are the following: what are the mesoscale mechanisms that link vegetation cover differences into large scale and climate anomalies?; what are the roles of moist and dry convection in transferring energy and redistributing atmospheric constituents, and how does convection change as a response to land-use? Specifically: what is the role of local circulations, including those generated by topography, in the transports of biomass burning products in the dry season? What is the role of the Andes mountains in the local atmospheric flow? ; how can we improve the radiation parameterizations in view of biomass burning products in the dry season?; what is the role of moist convection in transferring energy, water, carbon and other chemistry species? how well can we numérically simulate the atmosphere in the mesoscale with different land cover, convection, trace gases and nutrients?; how can we improve and couple the surface, convective and radioactive parameterizations? what is the specific role of different land cover (primary forest, secondary regret, pasture, savannah) in the hydrologic cycle? What changes in water and energy fluxes are associated to land-use land-cover change?; what is the role of the spatial organization of cloudiness in the regional energy budget? ; how do the cloudiness patterns relate to vegetation and soil moisture? How does the basin scale precipitation relate to the different cloud type and to the diurnal cycle of convection?; what is the role of organized mesoscale convective systems in determining the precipitation scale in the basins?; what are the interactions between the mesoscale convective systems and the large scale systems like SACZ, Bolivian High. Cold fronts, easterly waves, among others?; what is the role of land cover in the modification of physical and thermodynamical parameters and how can they influence local circulation?; how is the remote sensing from satellite going to improve the surface temperature estimates and the lower troposphere thermodynamics structure over different land-cover scenes? (AU)