Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
By focusing on the thermal gradient of the earth-sea surface during the dry
season it has become possible to create thermal conditions that favor the
development of powerful sea-breezes, which can penetrate quite far inland. The
trade winds carry the atmospheric humidity necessary for the formation of clouds
that are associated with the sea-breezes. It seems that from a threshold temperature
of 4°C, a change in temperature of 1°C is equivalent to the sea-breeze front moving
further inland by a distance of 10 km. This approach, which still needs to be
automated and systematized [COR 06], shows that, in addition to the ISCCP
approach, the geostationary imaging has potential when it comes to the spatio-
temporal monitoring of regional cloud conditions that are associated with a
particular type of weather.
Figure 3.6.
An analysis of the recordings of sea-breeze fronts taken between September and
December 2000. The low frequencies are shown in green, and the high frequencies
are shown in brown. The blue line shows the average location of the sea-breeze
front at 18:00 for the month of September 2000, whereas the red line
shows the average location of the sea-breeze front at 18:00 for the
month of December 2000 (see color section)
3.3.3.
Predicting rainfall in Mato Grosso
The lack of a substantial network of rain gauges in Mato Grosso coupled with a
series of average quality observations, means that satellite data must be used in
order to carry out small-scale spatialization regarding the prediction of rainfall. With
this information in mind, the use of satellite data for predicting rainfall in tropical
regions has continued to increase over the past 20 years. These experiments have led
to the creation of several international research programs [ARK 93].
Techniques using thermal infrared data were the first of their kind to be used
[DUB 04]. These techniques are generally based on the indirect relationship
between the temperature at the top of clouds and the intensity of precipitation that
comes from these clouds. Algorithms are developed on the basis that a cold cloud
