Assessment of impacts of inclusion of aerosol effects in numerical weather prediction over South America

• Grant number: 14/01563-1
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research
• Start date: August 05, 2014
• End date: August 04, 2015
• Field of knowledge: Physical Sciences and Mathematics - Geosciences - Meteorology
• Principal Investigator: Saulo Ribeiro de Freitas
• Grantee: Saulo Ribeiro de Freitas
• Host Investigator: Georg Grell
• Host Institution: Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais (INPE). Ministério da Ciência, Tecnologia e Inovação (Brasil). São José dos Campos , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), United States

Abstract

Aerosols participate on several physical processes of the atmosphere influencing your time evolution at different scales. During the dry season of South America, vegetation fires occur on a continental scale emitting a large amount of smoke (aerosol particles and gases), which alters profoundly the chemical composition of the atmosphere of large areas. Nowadays, several atmospheric-chemistry coupled models incorporate the effects of aerosols using a set of different levels of complexity of their numerical representation. It proposed studies to assess the level of complexity of the description of the effects of aerosols in numerical weather prediction (NWP) models that bring benefits in terms of gain of performance and at same time is feasible from the point of view of computational costs, mainly for use in operational centers of weather forecasting.The study will be built on applying CCATT-BRAMS regional model, used operationally at CPTEC / INPE for weather and air quality forecasting, and the WRF-Chem model. Various levels of complexity in terms of the distribution of aerosols (climatological versus prognostic) and the determination of the field of cloud condensation nuclei will be tested. The evaluation will be based on observed data using surface and upper air data network and remote sensing. There is a potential for significant positive impact on the performance of the NWP models, particularly in regions disturbed by high levels of pollution from biomass burning.

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)

FOWLER, LAURA D.; SKAMAROCK, WILLIAM C.; GRELL, GEORG A.; FREITAS, SAULO R.; DUDA, MICHAEL G.. Analyzing the Grell-Freitas Convection Scheme from Hydrostatic to Nonhydrostatic Scales within a Global Model. MONTHLY WEATHER REVIEW, v. 144, n. 6, p. 2285-2306, JUN 2016. (14/01563-1)

FREITAS, SAULO R.; PANETTA, JAIRO; LONGO, KARLA M.; RODRIGUES, LUIZ F.; MOREIRA, DEMERVAL S.; ROSARIO, NILTON E.; SILVA DIAS, PEDRO L.; SILVA DIAS, MARIA A. F.; SOUZA, ENIO P.; FREITAS, EDMILSON D.; et al. The Brazilian developments on the Regional Atmospheric Modeling System (BRAMS 5.2): an integrated environmental model tuned for tropical areas. Geoscientific Model Development, v. 10, n. 1, p. 189-222, JAN 13 2017. (15/10206-0, 14/01563-1, 14/01564-8)