Rainy Season Features for the Alcântara Launch Center

Pinheiro, Urias Andrade; Oyama, Marcos Daisuke

doi:10.5028/jatm.v5i4.266

ABSTRACT:

The rainy season features for the Alcântara Launch Center region (2°S-3°S; 44°W-45°W), located at the northern coast of Brazil, were obtained by using the Climate Prediction Center/National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration daily precipitation data from 1979 to 2012 accumulated to pentads. The rainy season onset (demise) was defined as the first pentad when precipitation is greater (lower) than the climatological annual average, and this behavior lasts for three out of the four following pentads. The average rainy season features were: 28 January as onset day; 16 June as demise day; 140 days as length; 1527 mm as total precipitation (about 80% of the annual value); and 10.9 mm day ^-1 as intensity (rain rate). The uncertainty on these climatological values due to the use of different precipitation datasets was estimated as few days for the onset/demise days and length, 100 mm for the total precipitation and about 1 mm day^-1 for the intensity. Except for intensity, the rainy season features showed large interannual variability: standard variation of about one month for onset/demise days, and coefficient of variation of 33 and 40% for length and total precipitation, respectively. The three-week period between 24 March and 13 April belonged to the rainy season of all years. In general, longer (shorter) duration was related to early (late) onset, late (early) demise, and higher (lower) total precipitation. Within the rainy season, on an average, precipitation was lower than 0.1 mm day^-1 in only four to five days; therefore, the occurrence of “no-rain” days was rather uncommon.

KEYWORDS:
Aerospace meteorology; Precipitation; Climatology; Brazilian space program

Full text is available only in PDF.

REFERENCES

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Molion, L.C.B. and Bernardo, S.O., 2002, “Uma Revisão da Dinâmica das Chuvas no Nordeste Brasileiro”, Revista Brasileira de Meteorologia, Vol. 17, No. 1, pp. 1-10.
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Oyama, M.D. and Carvalho, M.A.V., 2012, “Influência da Zona de Convergência Intertropical Atlântica na Precipitação da Região do Centro de Lançamento de Alcântara: Estudo Preliminar”, Proceedings of the XVII Brazilian Congress of Meteorology, Gramado, RS, Brazil.
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Silva, L.A., 2005, “The influence of upper tropospheric cyclonic vortex (UTCV) on the rainfall over the northeast brazil (NEB) and the associated characteristics” (in Portuguese), MSc Dissertation, Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais, São José dos Campos, SP, Brazil, p. 134.
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Sun, Y., Solomon, S., Dai, A. and Portmann, R.W., 2006, “How often does it rain?”, Journal of Climate, Vol. 19, No. 6, pp. 916-934.
Trenberth, K.E., 1997, “The definition of El Niño”. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, Vol. 78, No. 12, pp. 2771-2777.
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Vicente-Serrano, S.M. and Beguería-Portugués, S., 2003, “Estimating extreme dry-spell risk in the middle ebro valley (Northeastern Spain): a comparative analysis of partial duration series with a general pareto distribution and annual maxima series with a gumbel distribution”, International Journal of Climatology, Vol. 23, No. 9, pp.1103-1118.
Xie, P., Chen, M., Yang, S., Yatagai, A., Hayasaka, T., Fukushima, Y. and Liu, C., 2007, “A gauge-based analysis of daily precipitation over East Asia”, Journal of Hydrometeorology, Vol. 8, No. 3, pp. 607-626.

Publication Dates

Publication in this collection
Oct-Dec 2013

History

Received
12 July 2013
Accepted
27 Sept 2013

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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[2] Alves, L.M., Marengo, J.A., Camargo Júnior, H. and Castro, C., 2005, “Início da Estação Chuvosa na Região Sudeste do Brasil: Parte 1, Estudos Observacionais”, Revista Brasileira de Meteorologia, Vol. 20, No. 3, pp. 385-394.

[3] Alves, M.A.S., Marques, R.F.C. and Oyama, M.D., 2008, “Detecção de Distúrbios Ondulatórios de Leste a partir de Filtros Temporais”, Proceedings of the XV Brazilian Congress of Meteorology, São Paulo, SP, Brazil.

[4] Barbieri, P.R.B., 2005, “Characterization of the rain station in the south and southeastern regions of Brazil associated with the atmospheric circulation” (In Portuguese), MSc Dissertation, Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais, São José dos Campos, SP, Brazil, p. 116.

[5] Barros, S.S. and Oyama, M.D., 2010, “Sistemas Meteorológicos Associados à Ocorrência de Precipitação no Centro de Lançamento de Alcântara”, Revista Brasileira de Meteorologia, Vol. 25, No. 3, pp. 333-344.

[6] Chen, M., Shi, W., Xie, P., Silva, V.B.S., Kousky, V.E. and Higgins, R.W., Janowiak, J.E., 2008, “Assessing objective techniques for gauge-based analyses of global daily precipitation”, Journal of Geophysical Research, Vol. 113, No. D04110.

[7] Cohen, J.C.P., Silva Dias, M.A. and Nobre, C., 1995, “Environmental conditions associated with amazonian squall lines: a case study”, Monthly Weather Review, Vol. 123, No. 11, pp. 3163-3174.

[8] Cohen, J., Cavalcanti, I.F.A., Braga, R.H.M. and Santos Neto, L., 2009, “Linhas de Instabilidade na Costa N-NE da América do Sul”, in: Cavalcanti, I.F.A.; Ferreira, N.J.; Silva, M.G.A.J. and Silva Dias, M.A.F. (Eds), “Tempo e Clima no Brasil”, Ed. Oficina de Textos, São Paulo, Brazil, pp. 75-93.

[9] Ferreira, N.J., Ramirez, M.V. and Gan, M.A., 2009, “Vórtices Ciclônicos de Altos Níveis que Atuam na Vizinhança do Nordeste do Brasil”, in: Cavalcanti, I.F.A.; Ferreira, N.J.; Silva, M.G.A.J. and Silva Dias, M.A.F. (Eds), “Tempo e Clima no Brasil”, Ed. Oficina de Textos, São Paulo, Brazil , pp. 43-60.

[10] Gan, M.A., Kousky, V.E. and Ropelewski, C.F., 2004, “The South America monsoon circulation and its relationship to rainfall over West-Central Brazil”, Journal of Climate, Vol. 17, No. 1, pp. 47-66.

[11] Huffman, G.J., Adler, R.F., Morrissey, M., Bolvin, D.T., Curtis, S., Joyce, R., McGavock, B. and Susskind, J., 2001, “Global precipitation at one-degree daily resolution from multi-satellite observations”, Journal of Hydrometeorology, Vol. 2, No. 1, pp. 36-50.

[12] IBGE, 2002, “Mapa Brasil Climas - Escala 1:5.000.000”, Retrieved in January 10, 2012, from ftp://geoftp.ibge.gov.br/mapas_tematicos/mapas_murais/clima.pdf
» ftp://geoftp.ibge.gov.br/mapas_tematicos/mapas_murais/clima.pdf

[13] INMET, 2009, “Normais Climatológicas do Brasil: 1961-1990”, Retrieved in May 11, 2012, from http://www.inmet.gov.br/portal/index.php?r=clima/normaisClimatologicas
» http://www.inmet.gov.br/portal/index.php?r=clima/normaisClimatologicas

[14] Kayano, M.T. and Andreoli, R.V., 2006, “Relationships between rainfall anomalies over northeastern Brazil and the El Niño-Southern Oscillation”, Journal of Geophysical Research, Vol. 111, No. D13101.

[15] Kousky, V.E. and Gan, M.A., 1981, “Upper tropospheric cyclonic vortices in the tropical South Atlantic”, Tellus, Vol. 33, No. 6, pp. 538-551.

[16] Lemos, M.C., Finan, T.J., Fox, R.W., Nelson, D.R. and Tucker, J., 2002, “The use of seasonal climate forecasting in policymaking: lessons from Northeast Brazil”, Climatic Change, Vol. 55, No. 4, pp. 479-507.

[17] Liebmann, B., Camargo, S.J., Seth, A., Marengo, J.A., Carvalho, L.M.V., Allured, D., Fu, R.; Vera, C.S., 2007, “Onset and end of the rainy season in South America in observations and the ECHAM 4.5 atmospheric general circulation model”, Journal of Climate, Vol. 20, No. 10, pp. 2037-2050.

[18] Machado, L.A.T., Ferreira, N.J., Laurent, H. and Diedhiou, A., 2009, “Distúrbios Ondulatórios de Leste”, in: Cavalcanti, I.F.A.; Ferreira, N.J.; Silva, M.G.A.J. and Silva Dias, M.A.F. (Eds), “Tempo e Clima no Brasil”, Ed. Oficina de Textos, São Paulo, Brazil , pp. 61-74.

[19] Marengo, J.A., Liebmann, B., Kousky, V.E., Filizola, N.P. and Wainer, I.C., 2001, “Onset and end of the rainy season in the Brazilian Amazon Basin”, Journal of Climate, Vol. 14, No. 5, pp. 833-852.

[20] Marengo, J.A. and Nobre, C.A., 2009, “Clima da Região Amazônica”, in: Cavalcanti, I.F.A.; Ferreira, N.J.; Silva, M.G.A.J. and Silva Dias, M.A.F. (Eds), “Tempo e Clima no Brasil”, Ed. Oficina de Textos, São Paulo, Brazil , pp. 197-212.

[21] Marques, R.F.C. and Fisch, G.F., 2005, “As atividades de Meteorologia Aeroespacial no Centro Técnico Aeroespacial (CTA)”, Boletim da Sociedade Brasileira de Meteorologia, Vol. 29, No. 3, pp. 21-25.

[22] Marques, R.F.C. and Fortes, M.A.B., 2012, “Estudo da Variabilidade Interanual da Precipitação no Centro de Lançamento de Alcântara (CLA)”, Proceedings of the XVII Brazilian Congress of Meteorology, Gramado, RS, Brazil.

[23] Molion, L.C.B. and Bernardo, S.O., 2002, “Uma Revisão da Dinâmica das Chuvas no Nordeste Brasileiro”, Revista Brasileira de Meteorologia, Vol. 17, No. 1, pp. 1-10.

[24] Oliveira, F.P., 2012, “Fatores Associados à Iniciação de Linhas de Instabilidade na Região do Centro de Lançamento de Alcântara no Mês de Julho”,(in Portuguese), MSc Dissertation, Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais, São José dos Campos , SP, Brazil, p. 80.

[25] Oyama, M.D. and Carvalho, M.A.V., 2012, “Influência da Zona de Convergência Intertropical Atlântica na Precipitação da Região do Centro de Lançamento de Alcântara: Estudo Preliminar”, Proceedings of the XVII Brazilian Congress of Meteorology, Gramado, RS, Brazil.

[26] Pereira, E.I., Miranda, I., Fisch, G.F., Machado, L.A.T. and Alves, M.A.S., 2002, “Atlas Climatológico do Centro de Lançamento de Alcântara”. IAE, São José dos Campos, SP, Brazil (ACA/RT01/01, GDO-000000/B0047).

[27] Pinheiro, U.A., 2013, “Rainy season over the region of the Alcântara Launch Center” (in Portuguese), MSc Dissertation, Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais, São José dos Campos, SP, Brazil, p. 65.

[28] Silva, L.A., 2005, “The influence of upper tropospheric cyclonic vortex (UTCV) on the rainfall over the northeast brazil (NEB) and the associated characteristics” (in Portuguese), MSc Dissertation, Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais, São José dos Campos, SP, Brazil, p. 134.

[29] Silva, V.B.S., Kousky, V.E., Shi, W. and Higgins, R.W., 2007, “An improved gridded historical daily precipitation analysis for Brazil”, Journal of Hydrometeorology, Vol. 8, No. 4, pp. 847-861.

[30] Sun, Y., Solomon, S., Dai, A. and Portmann, R.W., 2006, “How often does it rain?”, Journal of Climate, Vol. 19, No. 6, pp. 916-934.

[31] Trenberth, K.E., 1997, “The definition of El Niño”. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, Vol. 78, No. 12, pp. 2771-2777.

[32] Vaughan, W.W. and Johnson, D.L., 2013, “Aerospace meteorology: an overview of some key environmental elements”, Journal of Aerospace Technology and Management, Vol. 5, No. 1, pp. 7-14.

[33] Vicente-Serrano, S.M. and Beguería-Portugués, S., 2003, “Estimating extreme dry-spell risk in the middle ebro valley (Northeastern Spain): a comparative analysis of partial duration series with a general pareto distribution and annual maxima series with a gumbel distribution”, International Journal of Climatology, Vol. 23, No. 9, pp.1103-1118.

[34] Xie, P., Chen, M., Yang, S., Yatagai, A., Hayasaka, T., Fukushima, Y. and Liu, C., 2007, “A gauge-based analysis of daily precipitation over East Asia”, Journal of Hydrometeorology, Vol. 8, No. 3, pp. 607-626.

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