Distribuição de raios, precipitação e casos de tempestades severas na Amazônia Oriental

Abstract

The objective of this work was to analyze the relation between lightning and precipitation, over different land surfaces and through case studies of severe storms, during the period of December, 2006 to December 2008. The studies were carried out within an area limited by the geographic coordinates 0°S to 6°S and 47°W to 50°W, which includes parts of the States of Pará and Maranhão, as well as, the northern portion, of Tocantins State, in Brazil. This region was selected for study, due to its location within the core area of the sensor locations of the lightning detection network operated by the Amazonian Protection System (SIPAM-LDN), which covers most of the electric power transmission lines in eastern Amazonia. Rainfall data were collected by 46 digital pluviometers, belonging to meteorological stations of INMET and HIDROWEB-ANA. For the analysis of the days of severe storms, data from a high time resolution pluviometer, operated by CPRM in Belem, were also used. In order to classify the land surface types, in particular the vegetation cover, information from IBGE Natural Resources data library, were used. For more detailed analysis of the relations among lightning, precipitation and land surface types, the studied area was divided in three parts, with different physiographic characteristics. Area 1, including the Marajo Island and a large water surface at the mouth of the Amazon River and nearby Atlantic Ocean. Area 2, which has 60% of its surface covered by forests. Area 3, with 62% of its surface covered by agriculture and/or pasture areas. Large scale meteorological systems which produce lightning and rainfall were taken into account for the analyses over these 3 sub areas, as well as, for the severe storm case studies around Belem. In almost all storms studied, it was observed that the lightning onset of events preceded the intense rainfall. In general, the results showed some seasonally different behaviors of the lightning density of occurrences over these distinct land surface compositions. Nevertheless, this work also showed that, the meteorological conditions have larger influence on the values of this variable than the surface types . This was clearly demonstrated by the case studies of severe storms, when the ZCIT and LI`s proved to be determinant on the precipitation and lightning occurrences observed around Belem.