Welcome
Welcome to our website for ATTO, the Amazon Tall Tower Observatory – an Amazon research project.
This research site is located in the middle of the Amazon rainforest in northern Brazil, about 150 km north of Manaus. It is run together by scientists from Germany and Brazil. Its aim is to continuously record meteorological, chemical and biological data, such as the concentration of greenhouses gases. With the help of these data, we hope to gain insights into how the Amazon interacts with the overlying atmosphere and the soil below. Because this region is of such importance to the global climate, it is vital to get a better understanding of these complex processes. Only then will we be able to make more accurate climate predictions.
Have a look around on our website to learn more about the research performed at ATTO and in labs and offices around the world. Please note that the website is still under constructions and more content will be added. So be sure to check back soon! You can also follow us on Social Media to get an insight into the daily lives of the ATTO scientists and stay up-to-date on all the latest news and events!
News
In a new study, Denis Leppla, Thorsten Hoffmann and their colleagues looked at pinic acid and its chiral forms. Pinic acid forms in the atmosphere through SAO formation from α-pinenes. The team wanted to find out how the chemical reactions in the atmosphere affect the chirality of its product pinic acid.
The future of the Amazon rainforest and its influence on the global climate were the focus of the visit by Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Steffi Lemke to the ATTO - Amazon Tall Tower Observatory in Brazil. The President and the Federal Minister for the Environment visited the German-Brazilian research station, in which the Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry in Jena and the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry in Mainz participate, on January 2nd.
This October, scientists from the ATTO project met in Manaus, Brazil for our project workshop. It clearly confirmed that ATTO has developed into a research site with globally unique capabilities – despite the pandemic and challenging field conditions. It was the first in-person workshop since the start of the pandemic and many project members had met in person for the first time since early 2020. For this reason alone, the spirits were high.
The team around Cybelli Barbosa analyzed and studied the distribution patterns of giant bioaerosol particles in the Amazon. For this, they looked at over 500 000 individual particles from five years and eight intensive campaigns and made some exciting discoveries, now published in npj Climate and Atmospheric Science.
Bioaerosols influence the dynamics of the biosphere underneath. In a new study, Sylvia Mota de Oliveira and her colleagues used the ATTO site to collect air samples at 300 m above the forest. Then, they used DNA sequencing to analyze the biological components that were present and figure out what species of plant or fungi they belong to. One of the most striking new insights is the stark contrast between the species composition in the near-pristine Amazonian atmosphere compared to urban areas.
Eiky Moraes, Cléo Dias-Júnior and their colleagues wanted to find out if the local topography at the ATTO influenced the atmospheric movements. In particular, they were interested in the effect that topography has on the formation of gravity waves. Comparing two simulations, one with and one without topography, revealed some important differences in the dynamics and chemistry of the atmosphere.
Blog: Voices from the Amazon
Hi there, my name is Renato Braghiere! I’m a climatologist and global ecologist at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California and I have worked on the ATTO project during my MSc degree from 2011 to 2013. I grew up in the countryside of the state of São Paulo in Brazil amid the trees, and from my early years, I’ve been curious about how nature works and how we connect with nature in so many different ways.
My name is Maryam and I am currently working as a research data manager at MPI-BGC. I have a background in geophysics and lots of prior experience with data management so that I can now take care of the ATTO data portal.
Hello everyone, my name is Frederik Lange. I started recently as a Ph.D. student at the Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry in Jena. Here, I work in the Molecular Biogeochemistry group with Gerd Gleixner as my supervisor.
Hello everyone, my name is Jeová Ramos da Silva Junior. I am a meteorologist and had my first contact with ATTO at the beginning of my master’s degree in 2017. During this period, I investigated how biomass burning might affect photosynthesis inside the canopy of the Amazon Rainforest.
My name is Maria Prass and I’m a PhD student at the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry in Mainz in the group of Christopher Pöhlker who’s focused on aerosol analytics. Born in the countryside, the forest and all its small to large inhabitants are fascinating me up even today. Studying biology seemed to be the perfect match for me. Who would have thought, that this would move me to be a scientist in the most beautiful but at the same time endangered ecosystem in the world: the Amazon rainforest?
In Chapter 2 of our "ATTO through time" blog, it is time to hear from Antonio Manzi, the first coordinator of the ATTO project on the Brazilian side. He recounts the vision of Amazonian scientists to build a tall tower in the 1980s, and how it finally became a reality nearly 30 years later.