Summer storms features in São Paulo Metropolitan Region during CHUVA-GLM Vale do Paraíba experiment

• Grant number: 15/11987-6
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: September 01, 2015
• End date: December 31, 2016
• Field of knowledge: Physical Sciences and Mathematics - Geosciences - Meteorology
• Principal Investigator: Rachel Ifanger Albrecht
• Grantee: Camila da Cunha Lopes
• Host Institution: Instituto de Astronomia, Geofísica e Ciências Atmosféricas (IAG). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 09/15235-8 - Cloud processes of the main precipitation systems in Brazil: a contribution to cloud resolving modeling and to the GPM (Global Precipitation Measurement), AP.TEM

Abstract

This project will study the characteristics of rainfall and electrical activity of precipitating systems that occurred in São Paulo Metropolitan Region (RMSP - acronym in Portuguese) during the CHUVA-GLM Vale do Paraíba project (November 2011 to March 2012). The analysis will use data from weather radar and lightning detection sensors to determine the spatial and temporal distribution and vertical structure of precipitation in systems with and without lightning, as well as those that generated more positive or negative cloud-to-ground lightning. The convective systems analyzed were tracked in space and time and they shall begin and dissipate within the radar coverage area. The electrical structure of these storms will be studied by analyzing the three-dimensional electromagnetic sources emitted by lightning and detected by the São Paulo Lightning Mapping Array (SPLMA) and the Lightning NETwork (LINET). Location of storm initiation will also be determined to investigate whether there are local topography influences on the formation of storms. This project will contribute to a better understanding of the physical processes precipitation formation and electrical activity of the summer storms at RMSP.