Effects of Amazon Deforestation on Patterns of Cloud
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Effects of Amazon Deforestation on Patterns of Cloud Formation Kellie Swadba Medvigy Research Group
Background • Rondônia, Brazil “fishbone” pattern of deforestation • Scales of deforestation • Dynamical triggering
Guiding Question and Methods • Main Question: Does a similar pattern present during the wet season? • Hypothesis: A similar pattern will present, though perhaps not as strongly • Use gridded satellite data to estimate cloud formation • Infrared and visible radiance data via collected by the NOAA geostationary satellite - GOES • Download December, January, February data using NOAA Weather and Climate Toolkit and Matlab • Generate maps of infrared and visual data averaged over entire season
Initial Results • Expected pattern did not present itself • Topography generated clouds
Next Tests • Analyzing transition seasons – March, April, May and September, October, November • Pattern not expected to present
New Methods • Consider effect of strength of winds • Gather wind speed data to find usable days when winds are weakest to see if pattern presents • Initial attempt: Radiosonde data • Final attempt: NCEP NCAR reanalysis data
New Results – Wet Season
New Results – Transition Season
Conclusions and Future Work • Patterns did not present as expected, but now we have more to explore • Run data through cloud detection algorithm • Determine exactly why patterns did not present
Acknowledgements • Thank you to: • Professor Medvigy and Jaya Khanna for your guidance and support throughout this project • Princeton Environmental Institute for making this internship possible
