Linking surface-based processes to the deeper atmosphere at a Brazilian tropical deforested site

As part of the Brazil TRMM/LBA project, high temporal resolution surface and airborne measurements were carried out over a tropical deforested site to verify the water vapor fluxes across the land-atmosphere interface, determine the vapor content in the atmospheric layer (surface to about 1400 m over land), and confirm the conversion of water vapor to rainfall as measured by the TRMM satellite. A secondary objective of our work was to interface our detailed measurements with routine observational radiosondes. We deployed and continuously operated several measurement systems at a pasture site in the state of Rondonia, Brazil during the wet season months of January and February 1999. Estimates of diabatic heating of the deeper atmosphere will be derived from tether sonde and radiosonde systems. In our presentation we will focus on how surface energy and water vapor fluxes control the diabatic heating of the deeper atmosphere from which precipitation yield estimates can be made.