SeReNA Project: remote sensing of cloud microphysics and its interaction with atmospheric aerosols

• Grant number: 10/15959-3
• Support type: Regular Research Grants
• Duration: June 01, 2011 - May 31, 2013
• Field of knowledge: Physical Sciences and Mathematics - Geosciences
• Principal Investigator: Alexandre Lima Correia
• Grantee: Alexandre Lima Correia
• Home Institution: Instituto de Física (IF). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Assoc. researchers: Fernando Gonçalves Morais

Abstract

This project will study experimentally the vertical profile of cloud microphysics and its response to the atmospheric load of aerosols, with a level of spatial and temporal detail that cannot be paralleled by current experimental techniques. This research topic is important for weather and climate since aerosols can change the mean lifetime of clouds, their reflective properties, the local thermodynamic conditions within clouds, and their precipitation patterns. These elements have direct influence over Earth's radiative balance, its hydrological and energetic cycles, and they are responsible for a large fraction of the uncertainty in climatic models. In this kind of study measurements using meteorological radars and in situ research aircraft are powerful tools, but they lack the necessary temporal and/or spatial accuracy to fully address the processes occurring in single clouds. This project will retrieve the vertical profile of effective radius of water droplets and ice particles in single clouds, by using measurements of the emerging radiation on cloud sides, while simultaneously measuring meteorological conditions and the aerosol loading in the vicinity of the cloud under analysis. The radiance measurements will be interpreted a posteriori with the aid of radiative transfer simulations in order to retrieve vertical profiles of droplet sizes. The PI for this project has successfully taken part in building, calibrating, and field testing a prototype of the instrumentation system discussed here, and keeps scientific exchanges with research groups that use a similar system. This project is part of the ongoing FAPESP Thematic Project AEROCLIMA no. 2008/58100-2, and it will contribute to the following research themes from the FAPESP Research Program on Global Climatic Changes: (a) consequences of climatic changes on water, carbon, and nitrogen cycles; and (b) radiation balance in the atmosphere, aerosols, trace gases and land use changes. (AU)

Scientific publications

(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)

CORREIA, ALEXANDRE L.; CATANDI, PATRICIA B. Deriving cloud microphysics from radiometric measurements in the Amazon Basin. Atmospheric Science Letters, v. 17, n. 11, p. 596-602, NOV 2016. Web of Science Citations: 0.

SENA, E. T.; ARTAXO, P.; CORREIA, A. L. Spatial variability of the direct radiative forcing of biomass burning aerosols and the effects of land use change in Amazonia. Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, v. 13, n. 3, p. 1261-1275, 2013. Web of Science Citations: 39.

TEN HOEVE, J. E.; REMER, L. A.; CORREIA, A. L.; JACOBSON, M. Z. Recent shift from forest to savanna burning in the Amazon Basin observed by satellite. ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH LETTERS, v. 7, n. 2 APR-JUN 2012. Web of Science Citations: 12.