Events
Celso von Randow
National Institute for Space Research (Inpe)
Center for Earth System Science (CCST)
Cachoeira Paulista, SP, Brazil
Celso von Randow is a researcher of the Center for Earth System Science, in the Brazilian National Institute for Space Research. Since 1999, he has been developing research on Biosphere-Atmosphere Interactions in tropical forests. Currently, he is collaborating with researchers from Microsoft Research and University of São Paulo on a project to test the use of prototypes of environmental sensors (geosensors) in the Atlantic coastal and in the Amazonian rain forests in Brazil.
Abstract
Ta ckling spa tial variability in biosphere-atmosphere interaction studies
The interaction between the Earth’s atmosphere and the terrestrial biosphere plays a fundamental role in the climate system and in biogeochemical and hydrological cycles, through the exchange of energy and mass (for example, water and carbon), between the vegetation and the atmospheric boundary layer, and the main focus of many environmental studies is to quantify this exchange over several terrestrial biomes.
Over natural surfaces like the tropical forests, factors like spatial variations in topography or in the vegetation cover can significantly affect the air flow and pose big challenges for the monitoring of the regional carbon budget of terrestrial biomes. It is hardly possible to understand the air flow and biosphere-atmosphere interaction in tropical forests without an approach that recognizes the complexity of the spatial variability of the environmental variables.
The successful deployment of a sensor network in the Atlantic rain forest motivates the partnership of INPE, USP, JHU and Microsoft Research to pursue a wide deployment in Amazonia in the near future. A follow-up study is envisioned now in an Amazonian forest site, aiming at a test of the integrated system to study the spatial variability of temperature and humidity within and above the rainforest canopy. As part of this study, a new type of ceramic humidity sensors, which are expected to more reliable and adequate to operate under the environmental conditions observed in the tropics, will be tested in comparison with commercial sensors.
While temperature and humidity are two key environmental variables, a full understanding of the interactions of the biosphere and the climate system will include studies of other variables, such as wind velocity, radiation and carbon dioxide concentration (CO2). An unconstrained research plan would include the deployment of a number of 3-D sonic anemometers and CO2 gas analyzers to infer the horizontal transports above and below the canopy. Further development of the software tools for management, quality control, visualization and integration of data collected could also include integration with direct numerical simulations of the flow field.
In the context of terrestrial carbon and climate research, we now face the challenge of merging numerous data sources (local and regional sensor networks, satellite products and climate computational models) that span a wide range of temporal and spatial scales. Not only to better understand the processes of the biosphere-atmosphere interaction, but also to many studies in heterogeneous environmental conditions, we need to aim at developing integrated systems of sensing technologies and computational tools to bridge gaps between scales of observations in one station to the regional scales of satellite and climate model outputs.