• Campinas (UNICAMP)
• Piracicaba - ESALQ
• Piracicaba - Fazenda Aereão
• Piracicaba - Cooperativa
• Jaguariúna - EMBRAPA Meio Ambiente – Campus I
• Jaguariúna - EMBRAPA Meio Ambiente – Campus II
• BrasilDAT
• Field Mill

Radar Band X dual POL Selex – Radar de dupla polarização Banda X Selex

With dual polarization as a standard feature, the magnetron based system is a fully fledged high-end weather radar system, which delivers high quality data for a large variety of applications. The METEOR 50DX can be used for regional campaigns in hydrological forecasting and scientific research, as a gap-filler in existing meteorological networks or to fulfil general meteorological functions in the X-Band range.

Parsivel drisdometer - drisdrômetro parsivel

PARSIVEL Optical Laser Disdrometer, Disdrometer for the classification of the drop spectrum. The device works on the extinction principle and measures precipitation particles using the shadowing effects they cause when they pass through a laser band. Parsivel captures both the size and the rate of fall in detail of the individual hydrometeors and classifies them into a range of 32 classes each. Depending on the measuring interval set, the resulting precipitation spectrum covers a time between 10 seconds and one hour. A fast signal processor uses the raw data to calculate the type of precipitation as well as the amount and intensity of the precipitation, the visibility in precipitation, the kinetic energy of the precipitation and the equivalent radar reflectivity. Optical precipitation measuring instrument for rain quantity and intensity as alternative to conventional collecting rain gauges.

Rain gauge - Puviômetro>

The design uses a proven tipping bucket mechanism for simple and effective rainfall measurement. The bucket geometry and material are specially selected for maximum water release, thereby reducing contamination and errors. Catchment area and measurement resolution meet the recommendations of the WMO. Four models of rain gauge are being usde within the SOS Chuva project: Hydrological Services America TB3 and TB4, Vaisala 444A and Delta Ohm HD2013.

Sonic anemometer - Anemômetro sônico

Wind sensor that uses ultrasonic technology to provide wind speed and direction. The instrument is robust and without mobile parts, so it has low maintenance requirements.

GPS (Global Positioning System) - Sistema de posicionamento global

A dual-frequency receiver for scientific applications, created specifically for reference stations and other high precision applications, with a capacity to collect the following observables GPS L1 C/A, L2C, L1 e L2 with its 24 available channels. To measure integrated water vapor by using atmosphere delay concept. This equipment is coupled to a PTU300 pressure, temperature and humidity transmitter (see below).

PTU (Vaissala Combined Pressure, Temperature, and Humidity Transmitter) – Medidor de temperatura, pressão e umidade

Coupled to the GPS, the PTU300 by Vaissala incorporates sensors: Vaisala BAROCAP® for atmospheric pressure, Vaissala HUMICAP® for humidity and a platinum RTD sensor for temperature.

Radar precipitation - Radar de precipitação

This precipitation sensor uses a 24 GHz Doppler radar to meassure precipitation quantity and intensity correlating drop size and speed. The type of hydrometeor is detected from the differences in drop speed.

Micro Rain Radar (MRR) - Radar de Micro Chuva

The unique and innovative Micro Rain Radar (MRR) is a small, portable and easy to operate. It can be used for now-casting of precipitation ie, it will detect the start of rain from ground level to high above the radar several minutes before the start of rain at ground level. It is a highly reliable system suitable for use in remote and extreme environments, requiring minimal maintenance and is well adapted for long term unattended operation. Statistically stable drop size distributions can be derived within a few seconds due to the size of the scattering volume. The Micro Rain Radar (MRR) can detect very small amounts of precipitation (below the threshold of conventional rain gauges) detecting drop sizes between 0.25 mm and 4.53 mm. This covers the size range of atmospheric occurring precipitation drops as larger drops in the atmosphere are affected by the air resistance as they fall and will split into smaller drops. The droplet number concentration in each drop-diameter bin is derived from the backscatter intensity in each corresponding frequency bin. In this procedure the relation between terminal falling velocity and drop size is exploited.

Flux tower

The flux tower uses eddy covariance methods to meassure turbulent fluxes of momentum, sensible and latent heat and carbon dioxide. An anemometer (YOUNG) is installed at the tower top (10 m height tower). A sonic anemometer and carbon dioxide and water vapor infrared gas analyzer IRGA (Cambell Scientific) and a Radiometer CNR4 are installed at a height of 8 m, toguether with temperature, humidity and atmospheric pressure. Another sensor of temeprature and humidity is istalled at 2 m height. In addition, the following instruments are installed at the surface level: soil humidity sensor (PR1, 6 levels); 5 soil temperature sensors; two plates that allow the measurement of soil heat flux; a rain gauge station. The sonic anemometer and gas analyzer collect data with a 20 Hz frequency, and the turbulent fluxes are calculated on-line.

MP3000 Microwave radiometer - Radiômetro de Microondas

Surface-based passive microwave and infrared remote sensing at 35 Channels (Frequency: 22.00 – 30.00 GHz and 51.00 – 59.00 GHz). Surface sensor (Temperature, Relative Humidity, and Barometric Pressure). Temperature, relative, cloud liquid water, water vapor profiles. Time-resolution: 2-6 minutes.

Hailpads – Detectores de Granizo

The hail detector hailpad is a plaque of soft styrofoam material packed in aluminum foil with a support for fixing the plaque. Since hail is solid and heavier than rain, it will leave marks or footprints in the surface of the hailpad. From this footprints, the incident hail number, size and orientation can be estimated. Therefore the hailpads can provide information on hail occurrence and intensity.

Field mills network – Rede de moinhos de campo

Electric field-mills (EFM) are designed to determine the relative strength of the electric field by comparing its level in a known, stable, uncharged, and reference object. When an uncharged sensor plate is exposed to an electric field, it becomes charged. Thus, unlike lightning detection systems, which respond to transients of the electromagnetic field generated by lightning, EFMs detect the electrostatic field and relatively slow changes in that field. They detect the presence of charge separation and net charge directly above and in the immediate surroundings of the sensor. Field changes in the order of a fraction of a second are due to the overall rearrangement of the thundercloud charge distribution, which is produced by a lightning flash, and slower field changes are due to cloud electrification and rearrangement of space charge in the atmosphere. The SOS Chuva field mills network is composed of 7 sensors installed in the cities of Campinas, Americana, Engenheiro Coelho, Itatiba, Santo Antonio da Posse, Tuiuti and Indaiatuba. It is possible to compute the spatial distribution of the electrostatic field in the area of the SOS-CHUVA experiment by taking each individual measurement and interpolating them using the Barnes method.

BrasilDAT network for lightning detection – rede Brasildat para detecção de raios

BrasilDAT network is an integrated intra-cloud and cloud-to-ground lightning detection system (total lightning) that combines wide-band sensors and relative dense network deployment of EarthNetworks technology. Its deployment started in Dec/2010 and now is composed of 56 sensors covering 11 States of Brazil located at southeast, south, center and part of northeast of the country. The sensors use time-of-arrival (TOA) method of detection and operate in a wider frequency range (from 1Hz to 12MHz). Multiple sensors are used to locate and verify individual strokes adding precision to the system. This network is able to capture the whole waveforms of the radiated signal and differentiate cloud-to-ground strokes from intra-cloud discharges by lining up entire waveforms in cross-correlation. It is also able to measure polarity and intensity however, some additional calibration are still needed due to propagation effects. Theoretical calculations show that BrasilDAT has presently 85 to 90% cloud-to-ground detection efficiency, about 50 to 60% intra-cloud detection efficiency, and about 500m cloud-to-ground location accuracy within the area of the SOS-CHUVA experiment.