Simulated Amazonian Atmospheric CO2 and Circulation: August 2001

This dataset contains a high-resolution regional atmospheric model simulation of mesoscale CO2 variations over the Santarem region of the Brazilian Amazon during August 2001. Produced by ORNL_CLOUD using the Colorado State University Regional Atmospheric Modeling System (RAMS), it features a 1-km finest grid centered on the Flona Tapajos forest. The simulation covers a 15-day period and integrates prescribed CO2 fluxes based on flux tower observations and IGBP land-cover data.

Use Cases

• Analyzing the impact of heterogeneous land cover (forest, pasture, rivers) on local CO2 concentration patterns.
• Studying the generation of mesoscale wind circulations driven by the topography and the T-shaped juxtaposition of the Amazon and Tapajos Rivers.
• Validating or comparing other regional climate models against a simulated scenario with observed flux tower and aircraft measurement inputs.
• Investigating the diurnal cycle of CO2 fluxes over different vegetation types and surface water in the Amazon region.

Strengths

• Model output was evaluated against flux tower observations and field measurements from the Santarem Mesoscale Campaign, showing reasonable capture of meteorological variables and CO2 concentrations.
• Simulation uses a high-resolution nested grid with a 1-km finest grid, providing detailed spatial analysis of mesoscale phenomena.
• Surface CO2 fluxes are prescribed using idealized diurnal cycles derived from in-situ flux tower observations, grounding the model in empirical data.

Limitations

• Critical metadata is missing from all sources: no column names, row counts, or dataset size information is provided.
• The temporal coverage is limited to a specific 15-day period in August 2001, which may not represent other seasons or conditions.
• There is a conflict in the 'last updated' metadata, with one source listing 2001-08-16 and others listing 2026-03-13, casting doubt on provenance tracking.

Provenance

Source

ORNL_CLOUD

Collection Method

Simulation using the Colorado State University (CSU) Regional Atmospheric Modeling System (RAMS) with prescribed surface fluxes.

Time Range

2001-08-01 to 2001-08-15

Freshness

2026-03-13 01:05:26.969964

Geography

Santarem region, Brazilian Amazon, centered on the Flona Tapajos with nested grids.