The Amazon Boundary-Layer Experiment (ABLE 2B): A Meteorological Perspective

Abstract

In July and August 1985, and April and May 1987, two atmospheric chemistry field experiments called the Amazon Boundary-layer Experiments, (ABLE 2A and 2B) were conducted from a base near Manaus, Brazil in the central Amazon basin. The experiments were designed to determine sources, sinks, concentrations, and transports of trace gases and aerosols originating from the tropical rain forest soils, wetlands, and vegetation. We describe in this paper the design of these experiments and some of the preliminary results which have emerged. We wish, in particular, to illustrate the complexities of determining the inter-related roles between meteorological scales of motion and the fluxes, transports, and reactions of chemical species and aerosols embedded in the atmospheric fluid. Illustrative results from ABLE 2A and 2B are presented which represent both meteorological findings largely independent of the chemistry and results which stem from the chemical nature of the experiment and might not have been found without concurrent chemical measurements.