Early Results From TRMM/LBA

During January and February 1999, a comprehensive field campaign was conducted by the NASA-Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission, in close collaboration with the LBA project. This field project was intended to identify the structure, kinematics, microphysical and precipitation characteristics of convective systems in the southwestern portion of the Amazon basin for verifying TRMM rainfall and heating algorithms, and TRMM cloud models. Doppler and polarimetric radars, instrumented aircraft, lightning detection networks, a sounding network, instrumented towers, raingauges, profilers and disdrometers were deployed for the field campaign. In this presentation we will report on the organization of the convection during this portion of the wet season, how the intensity and vertical structure of the convection was modulated by traveling synoptic disturbances, precipitation mechanisms, and lightning flash rates.