turbulence Archive - ATTO - Amazon Tall Tower Observatory

When Storms Hit: Frequent Thunderstorms Shape the Amazon’s Forest–Atmosphere Interactions

Thunderstorms regularly reshape weather over the Amazon. Using high-frequency data from the Amazon Tall Tower Observatory, researchers cataloged 410 storms (Aug 2021–Dec 2023) and found they strike about every other day, mostly from midafternoon to evening and April–September. The forest canopy mutes most gusts below it, while above-canopy airflow matches textbook storm patterns—insights that improve models of energy, aerosol, and greenhouse gas exchanges for better weather and climate predictions.

Publications

Can storms’ gust fronts increase carbon dioxide in the lower atmosphere?

Luciane Reis and her colleagues now performed a new study at the ATTO site that shows that gust fronts can also cause large jumps in carbon dioxide concentrations. But what are the sources of this carbon-dioxide-rich air?

Publications

Storm lines mix things up across the Amazon rainforest

So-called squall lines frequently bring thunderstorms to the Amazon region. With them comes a lot of rain, but also heavy, turbulent winds. This new study analyzes their impacts on surface meteorology and CO₂ fluxes.

Publications

Chasing down OH with the help speech recognition techniques

Direct measurements of OH radicals are rare and difficult to achieve. However, since they react with BVOCs, Ringsdorf et al. inferred them from isoprene measurements at ATTO. To do so, they applied a technique called ‘Dynamical Time Warping’ from the field of speech recognition. Akima Ringsdorf et al. published the study “Inferring the diurnal variability of OH radical concentrations over the Amazon from BVOC measurements” Open Access in Nature Scientific Reports.

Publications

What role do downdrafts play for turbulence regimes in the Amazon?

In a new study, Anne Mendonça, Cléo Quaresma, Daniel Marra and their co-authors analyzed different turbulence regimes at the ZF2 site as part of the ATTO-INVENTA project. They also investigated how turbulence is connected to the occurrence of downdrafts and extreme wind gusts, that might lead to tree mortality.

Publications