Page 234 - 00. Complete Version - Progress Report IPEN 2014-2016

234 Environmental Science and Technology | Progress Report

Studies of trace gases and in mid-2015. An ecological survey including
greenhouse gases of urban a biodiversity assessment has been conduct-

areas and remote areas. ed in the forest region surrounding the site.
Measurements of micrometeorological and
atmospheric chemical variables were initiat-
Modifications by Anthropogenic ed, in 2012, and their range has continued to
Pollution of the Natural Atmospheric broaden over the last few years. The meteo-
Chemistry and Particle Microphysics rological and micrometeorological measure-
of the Tropical Rain Forest During the ments include temperature and wind profiles,
GoAmazon (Green Ocean Amazon). precipitation, water and energy fluxes, turbu-

lence components, soil temperature profiles
The GoAmazon campaign seeks to quantify and soil heat fluxes, radiation fluxes, and vis-
and understand how aerosol and cloud life cy- ibility. A tree has been instrumented to mea-
cles in a particularly clean background in the sure stem profiles of temperature, light inten-
tropics are influenced by pollutant outflow sity, and water content in cryptogamic covers.
from a large tropical city, all in the context of The trace gas measurements comprise con-
addressing the susceptibility of cloud-aero- tinuous monitoring of carbon dioxide, car-
sol-precipitation interactions to present-day bon monoxide, methane, and ozone at five to
and future pollution in the tropics. Within eight different heights, complemented by a
this context of GoAmazon, the overall goals variety of additional species measured during
of the proposed research are (i) to measure intensive campaigns (e.g., VOC, NO, NO2, and
and mechanistically understand the factors OH reactivity). Aerosol optical, microphysi-
affecting the number-diameter distribution cal, and chemical measurements are being
n(d) of the atmospheric particle population made above the canopy as well as in the can-
over a tropical rain forest (especially the ef- opy space. They include aerosol light scatter-
fects of anthropogenic pollution as a pertur- ing and absorption, fluorescence, number and
bation to natural state) and (ii) to develop and volume size distributions, chemical composi-
implement an upscaling analysis from this tion, cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) concen-
new data set and knowledge of n(d) to prog- trations, and hygroscopicity. In this paper, we
nosticate possible climatic impacts of pres- discuss the scientific context of the ATTO ob-
ent-day urban pollution and possibly greater servatory and present an overview of results
pollution in the future. from ecological, meteorological, and chemical
pilot studies at the ATTO site.
The Amazon Tall Tower Observatory
(ATTO): overview of pilot measurements Characterization of São Paulo
on ecosystem ecology, meteorology, contaminated areas by persistent organic
trace gases, and aerosols. pollutants (POPs) and development
of a safe decomposition process.
The Amazon Tall Tower Observatory (ATTO)
has been set up in a pristine rain forest re- Pesticides banned, obsolete or discarded con-
gion in the central Amazon Basin, about 150 stitute a serious environmental risk around the
km northeast of the city of Manaus. Two 80m world, especially in developing countries. Pes-
towers have been operated at the site, since ticides are among the compounds that consti-
2012, and a 325m tower is nearing completion tute the group of so-called POPs, or persistent

Instituto de Pesquisas Energéticas e Nucleares