Relations between high precipitation events in the northern Northeast Brazil and the role of the Madden-Julian oscillation

• Grant number: 13/09642-5
• Support type: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Doctorate
• Effective date (Start): September 15, 2013
• Effective date (End): December 14, 2013
• Field of knowledge: Physical Sciences and Mathematics - Geosciences - Meteorology
• Principal Investigator: Adilson Wagner Gandu
• Grantee: Francisco das Chagas Vasconcelos Júnior
• Supervisor abroad: Charles Jones
• Home Institution: Instituto de Astronomia, Geofísica e Ciências Atmosféricas (IAG). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Research place: University of California, Santa Barbara (UC Santa Barbara), United States
• Associated to the scholarship: 11/09314-2 - Water vapor intraseasonal variability over northern Northeast Brazil and the southern hemisphere summer: present climate and future projections, BP.DR

Abstract

Northern Northeast Brazil (NNB) is a region with significant climate variability on the interannual to multidecadal timescales, in which extreme precipitation events may produce strong impacts. In particular, interannual variability is associated with patterns of Sea Surface Temperature (SST) anomalies in the tropical Atlantic and Pacific Oceans that influences moisture transport, convective activity and Intertropical Convergence Zone positioning and influences a short rainy season. Spatial-temporal variability of precipitation is also large. NNB also exhibits a pre-wet season associated with front systems from higher latitude regions (in its southernmost part) and upper tropospheric cyclonic vortices. Intense precipitation events lasting for a few days may cause agricultural, material and human losses. It is acknowledged that rainy period rainfall of NNB is strongly modulated by the Madden-Julian Oscillation (MJO), the dominant mode of intraseasonal variability in the tropics. The active phase MJO is often considered as one of the mechanisms associated with the occurrence of high daily rainfall totals in the NNB, as it has been shown that MJO changes the moisture transport over South America. Nevertheless, those studies did not take account changes in water vapor transport and moisture budget over NNEB during extremes events of intense precipitation in the its rainy season, when those events are associated with the occurrence of the MJO or its life cycle phases. This project will analyze the relationship between extremes precipitation events during both pre-wet season and wet season over NNEB and the MJO and investigate the changes in the water vapor transport and moisture budget during those events. (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)

FRANCISCO DAS CHAGAS VASCONCELOS JUNIOR; CHARLES JONES; ADILSON WAGNER GANDU. Interannual and Intraseasonal Variations of the Onset and Demise of the Pre-Wet Season and the Wet Season in the Northern Northeast Brazil. Revista Brasileira de Meteorologia, v. 33, n. 3, p. -, Set. 2018.