GOAMAZON-CHUVA

Observations and Modeling of the Green Ocean Amazon: CHUVA

1 November 2013 - 31 October 2014

Lead Scientist: Luiz Machado

Observatory: AMF , MAO

As one of the Brazilian components of the GOAMAZON field campaign, CHUVA is supported by FAPESP, or Fundação de Amparo a Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo, (number 2009/15235-8) and coordinated by INPE, or Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais. Meaning “rain” in Portuguese, CHUVA is the short name for the "Cloud processes of the main precipitation systems in Brazil: A contribution to cloud resolving modeling and to the GPM (Global Precipitation Measurement)." The CHUVA project, 2010 to the present, has conducted five field campaigns; the sixth and last campaign will be held in Manaus from January to October 2014 as part of the GOAMAZON campaign.

CHUVA's main scientific motivation is to contribute to the understanding of cloud processes, which represent one of the least understood components of the weather and climate system. The five CHUVA campaigns were designed to measure specific tropical weather regimes. The first two experiments, Alcântara and Fortaleza, in northeast Brazil focused on warm clouds. The third campaign, conducted in Belém, was dedicated to the large tropical squall lines that often form along the sea-breeze front. The fourth campaign was held in the Paraiba Valley of southeastern Brazil, which is a region with intense lightning activity. The fifth campaign was carried out at the end of 2012 in Santa Maria, southern Brazil, a region of very intense hailstorms associated with frequent mesoscale convective complexes. The last CHUVA campaign is a joint effort with the GOAMAZON initiative.

The CHUVA campaign employed an X-Pol measurement strategy, which provided volume scans and several RHIs in coordination with the ARM cloud radar. Besides the X-band radar, another site was installed, 10 km from the T3 site equipped with the following basic instruments:

• impact (Joss-Waldvogel) and laser (Parsivel and Thies) disdrometers
• raingauges
• a microwave radiometer (MP3000A with 35 channels) ranging from 22.00 to 30.00 GHz (21 channels)
• one K-band (24.1 GHz) Doppler spectral vertically pointing micro rain radar (MRR)
• GPS sensor.

Detailed information can be obtained on the CHUVA website. It is the primary access to the CHUVA information and data. During part of the intensive periods, 4 radiosondes/day were launched at the air force base and ZF2 coordinated with the T3 radiosonde operation.