LBA Clouds

In the context of climate change, great uncertainties lie in the understanding of what the response of clouds and precipitation will be to a planet more impacted by human activity. The Amazon region, as it is subject to a huge gradient of concentration of trace gases and aerosols between the rainy and dry seasons, becomes an excellent laboratory for studying the properties of clouds both under natural conditions and under this strong human influence.

In this project, long-term measures will be taken to study the micro and macrophysical properties of clouds in the Amazon region. High resolution numerical modeling studies will also be carried out. It is intended to use the BRAMS model, developed by the Brazilian community and which today has the most accurate representation of the Amazon region from the point of view of vegetation, topography, aerosols and chemistry. However, the parameterization of microphysics is still the original of RAMS, including only a moment in the size distribution and a fixed concentration of CCN. We intend to implement a new microphysics, like that of RAMS @ CSU, which includes dynamic CCNs with two moments and a mixture of aerosols (kappa parameter). The combination of simulations and measures will allow a better understanding of the life cycle of convective systems in the Amazon region, as well as understanding the factors that can alter the clouds and precipitation fields, and advance in the understanding of aerosol climate interactions.