Check out the CloudRoots campaign in Brazil this summer

As part of the CloudRoots project, a group of researchers from the Atmospheric Physics and Chemistry Group and the Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development (both Utrecht University) and the Meteorology and Air Quality Group at Wageningen University & Research, carried out a large scientific campaign in Brazil in July-August 2022. We went to the Amazon Tall Tower Observatory (ATTO), a scientific research station that has been built in the middle of the Amazon rainforest, with as central structure a 320 high tower for atmospheric observations. Many different measurements were carried out on the ground, on the tower and with balloons and aircraft. The goal was to investigate the exchange of water and carbon between the atmosphere and the biosphere with particular emphasis on short-time effect of passing clouds, which change the conditions at the ground from sunny to shaded in seconds. How do the plants react to such fast transitions, and how does this affect the atmosphere-biosphere exchange?

IMAU technician David Bonell Fontas joined the expedition and produced a movie about the beautiful environment and the exciting research that was carried out there.