Jose Ricardo de Almeida Franca
@igeo.ufrj.br
Full Professor / Department of Meteorology
Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro
RESEARCH INTERESTS
Remote Sensing
Atmospheric Physics
Climatology
Urban Meteorology
Climate Change
Scopus Publications
Scopus Publications
Fabricio Polifke da Silva, Wanderson Luiz-Silva, Joao H. Huamán-Chinchay, and José Ricardo de Almeida França
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Jose Franca, Caio Aires, Mauricio Nobre, Sidnei Sakamoto, and Gutemberg Henrique Dias
Lepra
Lídia Luisa Mota De Pontes, José Ricardo De Almeida França, and Lino Augusto Sander De Carvalho
Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro
This work is a case study for the Hydrographic Region of the Médio Paraíba do Sul located in the State of Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), which has natural disasters, such as floods, as the most recurrent. Due to the social, economic and environmental impacts that these disasters cause, this research aim to analyze the history of alerts issued by the Flood Warning System (FWS) and to assess its efficiency. Through the retro-analysis of Alert Trigger Events (ATE) that occurred in the monitored rivers, investigations were also carried out in the hydrological and meteorological scope. The results identified that the Attention stage belonging to the operational protocol significantly reduces the efficiency of the FWS about sending alerts, causing high false alarm rate. Regarding the influence that variation in the type of data transmission has on the Operational Protocol in RH-III, it is considered that the time interval between data transmission and their availability on the State Environmental Institute (SEI) erver generates a false alarm, however the FWS is still efficient. Barra Mansa River is the only one that has flood events, which raises questions about the representativeness of the other stations spread across RH-III. In addition, 60% of alerts issued for RH-III were related to episodes of Cold Fronts and South Atlantic Convergence Zones. These information helps improve the description of the flood events in the region. Rainfall Anomaly Index (RAI) identified periods that the rainfall rate was below the climatological average, indicating a drier environment, but with alerts issued.
Vitor Fonseca Vieira Vasconcelos de Miranda, Leonardo de Faria Peres, Andrews José de Lucena, José Ricardo de Almeida França, and Renata Libonati
Elsevier BV
Leonardo Rafael Teixeira Cotrim Gomes, Edson Pereira Marques Filho, Iuri Muniz Pepe, Bruno Severino Mascarenhas, Amauri Pereira de Oliveira, and José Ricardo de A. França
Energies MDPI AG
Renewable energy must be prioritized by humankind, mainly if there is an expected increase of 50% in energy consumption by 2030 and climate change scenarios are also confirmed. Urban areas consume 70% of the available energy on the planet. Brazil, the largest country in South America, concentrates more than 85% of its population in urban areas, facing a challenge to increase the renewable power plants in its energy matrix. This work presents the solar radiation components behavior for the city of Salvador to contribute with initiatives for the use of solar energy resource. Firstly, a radiometric platform was implemented to obtain direct measurements of global (EG) and diffuse (EDF) components of incoming solar radiation at the surface. The knowledge of EDF is an important requirement to support photovoltaic system projects, and there is no information on direct measurements of this component in the State of Bahia. The diffuse radiation measurement device (DRMD) was designed and built for this purpose. The measurements of solar radiation components performed in this research were submitted to a specific quality control, statistically analyzed and used to evaluate the performance of different empirical models to represent the behavior of EDF in the tropical coastal city. The results demonstrate the potential to explore solar energy in the city of Salvador, with annual values of sunshine higher than 2200 h year−1 and average daily intensities of EG and EDF equal to 18.7 MJm−2day−1 and 7.35 MJm−2day−1, respectively. The analysis of the diurnal cycle shows that EG in summer reaches a maximum of 4.2 MJm−2h−1 and in the rainy season it reaches a minimum of 3.7 MJm−2h−1, both at noon, and in summer the EDFh is 35% of the EGh and it is 46% in the rainy season.
Caio Átila Pereira Sena, João Antônio Recio da Paixão, and José Ricardo de Almeida França
Elsevier BV
Fausto Machado-Silva, Renata Libonati, Thiago Felipe Melo de Lima, Roberta Bittencourt Peixoto, José Ricardo de Almeida França, Mônica de Avelar Figueiredo Mafra Magalhães, Filippe Lemos Maia Santos, Julia Abrantes Rodrigues, and Carlos C. DaCamara
Elsevier BV
Vitor Vaz Hassan, José Ricardo De Almeida França, and Wallace Figueiredo Menezes
Instituto de Geociencias - UFRJ
De acordo com a literatura especializada, a formacao e passagens de sistemas frontais pela regiao sul do Brasil ocorrem com frequencia durante o inverno, quando massas de ar mais frio proveniente do polo Sul alcancam latitudes mais baixas e interagem com massas de ar mais quentes, favorecendo a formacao de linhas de tempestades. Durante a madrugada e manha do dia 08/06/2017, a passagem de uma frente fria causou serios danos na rede eletrica em diversas cidades do Estado do Rio Grande do Sul. Ao todo, 19 municipios, localizados principalmente na regiao centro-norte do Estado, foram atingidos pelo tempo severo, resultando em mais de 4.500 pessoas sem energia eletrica. Nesse contexto, o objetivo principal deste trabalho e verificar o aperfeicoamento no desempenho do modelo regional de mesoescala Brazilian Development on the Regional Atmospheric Modeling System (BRAMS) ao introduzir duas diferentes distribuicoes de aerossois na parametrizacao microfisica do modelo, especificamente para este caso de tempo severo. Os resultados mostram que neste caso o modelo se mostrou pouco sensivel as alteracoes da distribuicao de aerossois, mas ainda assim, obteve resultados satisfatorios, especialmente na previsao de chuva local.
Karina M. de Castro-Silva, Anna C. Carvalho, Maria T. Cavalcanti, Pedro da S. Martins, José R. França, Maria Oquendo, Afrânio L. Kritski, and Annika Sweetland
EDITORA SCIENTIFIC
Objective: To estimate the prevalence of major depressive episode (MDE) in patients with presumptive pulmonary tuberculosis (pre-PTB, defined by cough lasting ≥ 3 weeks) and compare it between patients with pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB) and without PTB. Methods: Patients with pre-PTB (n=260) were screened for depression using the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9). Those individuals with scores ≥ 10 were subsequently assessed with the depression module of the Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview (MINI-Plus) to confirm diagnosis. Associations of categorical variables with PTB and MDE were calculated using the chi-square test and OR. Results: PTB was confirmed in 98 patients (37.7%). A high proportion of both groups (active PTB and no PTB) screened positive for depression (60.2 vs. 62.1%, respectively). Among 159 patients who screened positive for depression, a subset of 97 (61.0%) were further evaluated with the MINI-Plus; current MDE was confirmed in 54.6% (53/97). On univariate and multivariate analysis, female sex was the only factor associated with the diagnosis of current MDE (p = 0.04). Conclusion: The prevalence of MDE was high among individuals with prolonged respiratory symptoms, independent of PTB diagnosis. This is consistent with other studies of depression in primary care in Brazil.
P. A. WILSON, J. R. A. FRANÇA, A. J. LUCENA, and V. F. V. V. MIRANDA
Instituto de Geociencias - UFRJ
This work analyzes the spatial and temporal pattern of Land Surface Temperature (TSC) in the urban area of Macaé, based on Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and use and land cover. Analyses were performed by Thematic Mapper (TM) sensor images, aboard the Landsat 5. TSC and NDVI maps were generated through remote sensing data. Maps for use and land cover were also generated for specific days in 1980, 1990, 2000 and 2010, which enabled a spatial and seasonal temporal analysis. The results showed that, with the growth of the urban area of Macaé, there were points favorable to the formation of heat islands, showing that the built-up areas are warmer than in the past.
Vitor Fonseca Vieira Vasconcelos de Miranda, Leonardo De Faria Peres, Edson Pereira Marques Filho, and Jose Ricardo de Almeida Franca
IEEE
The knowledge of the energy balance is critical to the understanding the urban thermal behavior. Advances in quantitative remote sensing showed that the energy fluxes can be retrieved from imagery data. However, every product generated from remote sensing must be validated. In this context, this study retrieved the fluxes from the energy balance and validated them with in-situ data. The fluxes were based on the Surface Energy Balance Algorithm for Land (SEBAL) and Landsat-8 images, for comparison with a micrometeorological station located in the Fundão Island-RJ. The Bowen ratio and eddy covariance methods were used to obtain the in-situ fluxes from the station data. The retrieved SEBAL fluxes were closer to the Bowen ratio than eddy covariance method. As energy fluxes present themselves as turbulent fluxes, much remains to understand their behavior and the accuracy of algorithms based on remote sensing data over urban surfaces. The work is a contribution to improve our knowledge about these surface fluxes in urban environments.
Jéssica S. Panisset, Renata Libonati, Célia Marina P. Gouveia, Fausto Machado-Silva, Daniela A. França, José Ricardo A. França, and Leonardo F. Peres
Wiley
Future climate scenarios point to an increase in the frequency of extreme droughts events, even in humid biomes. Throughout the 21st century, large areas of the Amazon basin experienced the most severe droughts ever recorded with special emphasis on the 2005 and 2010 events due to their severity and extent. Currently, there is an increased demand to understand the geographic extent and seasonal variability of climate variables during drought events, especially with respect to the social and environmental impacts. In this study, we aim to compare the observed climate conditions during the drought episodes of 2005, 2010 and 2015. We perform a detailed assessment of the measured precipitation, land‐surface temperature (LST) and solar radiation anomalies. We provide evidence that the anomalous precipitation deficit during 2015 exceeded the amplitude and spatial extent of the previous events, affecting more than 80% of Amazon basin, particularly the eastern portion. The pronounced lack of rainfall availability during late spring and early summer, coincident with radiation and temperature surpluses during these years are significant and notable. Changed meteorological spatial patterns were observed, with precipitation and radiation being the most prominent parameters in 2005, whereas precipitation and LST were most relevant in 2010. Understanding the behaviour and interactions of pertinent meteorological variables, as well as identifying similar or divergent patterns over the region during distinct extreme events, is essential for the improvement of our knowledge of Amazon forest vulnerability to climate fluctuation changes.
B.M. DUARTE, J.R.A. FRANÇA, and L.A.J. JUSTO
Instituto de Geociencias - UFRJ
The goal of this work is to investigate the microphysical structure of clouds formed in extreme precipitation events in south and southeast of Brazil. Seven cases were studied with data from CloudSat satellite, through its 94-GHZ profiling radar, complemented by precipitation estimates from Aqua satellite. The analyzed parameters were: effective radius, water content and particle concentration, all for liquid water and ice, creating a set of six variables. In general aspects, the results revealed events containing mainly Nimbostratus (Ns), with high values of liquid parameters, and events with Cumulonimbus (Cb) predominance, where the presence of ice plays a more important role in correlating with precipitation extremes. The profiles at the location of most intense precipitation were individually analyzed for each case, which leads to a clear distinction between two groups, one with the highest precipitation-rate cases (Group A) and the other gathering the lowest-rate cases (Group B). Group A presented notably lower values of liquid water parameters in the lower portion of the cloud. For example, at an altitude of 2 km, effective radius was around 5 μm, compared to 10 μm for Group B. As for ice parameters analysis, Group A presented relatively higher values in the upper portion of the cloud. Ice water content reached peaks between 1 and 1.5 gm -3 , while only one case in Group B exceeded 0.5 gm -3 . Cloud tops in Group A went up to around 14 km and between 10 and 11 km in Group B. The results found are validated by observations obtained from previous methodologies, which allowed only for local measurements. CloudSat fills the gaps and unveils the entire picture. It will be necessary to expand the number of case studies in order to find actual microphysical signature of extreme events, and this paper contributes as a starting point for future works and even operational tools.
Leonardo de Faria Peres, Andrews José de Lucena, Otto Corrêa Rotunno Filho, and José Ricardo de Almeida França
Elsevier BV
V. V. HASSAN, J. R. A. FRANÇA, W. F. MENEZES, and L. F. PERES
Instituto de Geociencias - UFRJ
Durante a tarde do dia 20 de abril de 2015, por volta das 15h (horario local), ocorreu um evento de tornado sobre a cidade de Xanxere – SC, que foi classiicado como F2 segundo a escala Fujita. Alem de quatro mortes e 97 feridos em Xanxere, ainda se contabilizaram prejuizos economicos da ordem de R$100 milhoes. Segundo a literatura nesta regiao existem condicoes atmosfericas que sao necessarias e favoraveis a ocorrencia de tempestades severas com potencial para formacao de tornados. Somente no estado de Santa Catarina foi conirmado o registro de 10 tornados entre os anos de 1976 e 2000, o que ressalta a importância de estudos e a veriicacao de tempestades severas nesta regiao. Nesse contexto, o objetivo deste trabalho e caracterizar e entender o ambiente sinotico e de mesoescala associado a formacao da tempestade que originou o tornado de Xanxere, e a veriicacao da adequacao dessas caracteristicas sinoticas, com as encontradas nos modelos conceituais para tempestades severas. Para tal, foram utilizados dados de umidade relativa, movimento vertical (omega) e vento da reanalise do ERA INTERIM, com resolucao espacial de 50 km. E ainda, um experimento teste de modelagem numerica em alta resolucao, utilizando o modelo de mesoescala BRAMS, foi realizado visando encontrar alguns aspectos preliminares do ambiente em mesoescala associado ao tornado de Xanxere. Por im, os resultados mostraram que os ambientes sinoticos e de mesoescala foram favoraveis a formacao e desenvolvimento de tempestades severas com potencial para formacao de tornados sobre grande parte do oeste de Santa Catarina, principalmente proximo ao municipio de Xanxere. E importante destacar que os fatores dinâmicos, termodinâmicos e os mecanismos forcantes se mostraram presentes e atuando em conjunto em um cenario predecessor (hora antes) ao evento.
Edson P. Marques Filho, Amauri P. Oliveira, Willian A. Vita, Francisco L.L. Mesquita, Georgia Codato, João F. Escobedo, Mariana Cassol, and José Ricardo A. França
Elsevier BV
L. A. J. JUSTO and J. R. A. FRANÇA
Instituto de Geociencias - UFRJ
The approach used in this work's methodology looks to represent the average microphysical structure of different types of clouds formed in two different ecosystems. The selected regions were located in the Midwest of Brazil (coordinates: 12-18 ° S and 46-58 ° W) and the South Atlantic Ocean (coordinates: 12-25 ° S and 9-30 ° W). In order to accomplish the proposed goal, data from CloudSat satellite from a period of approximately five years are used (from June 2006 to April 2011). The results show that there is little variation in microphysical structure between continental and maritime clouds in the studied regions. The mean droplet (ice particle) effective radius obtained in all the cloud types analyzed was 12.4 I¼m (71.9 I¼m) for maritime clouds and 11.0 I¼m (72.9 I¼m) for continental clouds. Particle size distribution (concentration as a function of size) was the most efficient parameter to distinguish cloud types, making it possible to identify particularities of each type. The results showed that even in the period with the highest concentration of aerosols observed in the Central-West region of Brazil (spring), there is a significant difference in the cloud particle size distribution in the regions studied. These results indicate that other external agents (besides the total concentration of aerosol integrated in the atmospheric column) are acting more significantly to modulate the particles distribution within the clouds in the Central-W est region.
Andrews Jose de Lucena, Leonardo de Faria Peres, Otto Correa Rotunno Filho, and Jose Ricardo de Almeida Franca
IEEE
This study aims to map the urban heat island in the metropolitan area of Rio de Janeiro (MARJ) using remote sensing data to derive land use maps and land-surface temperature (LST) fields based on Landsat data. The LST difference between urban and vegetation and the temporal evolution of LST were verified based on the Students's t statistical test conducted at the 5% level. Obtained results indicate that LST has increased by approximately 2.0 °C over the last decade and that urban heat island has increased from 4.4 to 6.1 °C.
C. A. P. SENA, J. R. A. FRANÇA, and L. F. PERES
Instituto de Geociencias - UFRJ
The Metropolitan Area of Rio de Janeiro (MARJ) presents a number of environmental problems, among them, the occurrence of Urban Heat Islands (UHI). This paper examines the characteristics of the UHI in the MARJ. For such, 8-days compositions data of Land Surface Temperature (LST), during the period from January 2003 to December 2010, generated by the MODIS (Moderate-resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) sensor, aboard the Terra and Aqua satellites were used. The data analysis was done by calculating the average LST gathering data for the satellites pass over the seasons, so it could be analyzed more clearly, without cloud contamination. It was observed, some zones presented temperatures close to 50oC during the spring and summer. Throughout the autumn and winter the average reached 40 o C over most of the study area. During the spring, a 25oC temperature range was registered between areas with different urbanization levels. In the summer the amplitude was 20oC between the same areas. In autumn the difference was 15oC and in winter, 10oC.
V. H. P. MEIRELES, J. R. A. FRANÇA, and L. F. PERES
Instituto de Geociencias - UFRJ
The main objective of this study is analyze the field of Surface Temperature (TS) of the Metropolitan Region of Rio de Janeiro (RMRJ) and its relation to land use. The analysis was based on vegetation index NDVI and TS values obtained from NOAA - 14 and 18 images covering the 2005 to 2010 years. The Maximum Value Composite method was used to generate of TS and NDVI monthly maps and also for all data period. The different statistical parameters (e.g. correlation and determination coefficients, linear regression and standard deviation) were calculated to determine the relationship between TS and NDVI. The TS monthly values for NOAA - 14 satellite shown to be high in the early morning, although slightly lower than NOAA - 18 satellite due to the different times of passage. It was observed that Urban Heat Island (ICU) phenomenon operates throughout the year, especially in the eastern portion of the city and in the Baixada Fluminense cities. The inverse relationship between TS and NDVI was observed mainly in the autumn and winter months with the highest correlation and determination coefficients. However, this is not observed in the summer months because the heating effect of macroscale (weather effects) overlaps with land use.
Andrews José de Lucena, Otto Corrêa Rotunno Filho, José Ricardo de Almeida França, Leonardo de Faria Peres, and Luciano Nóbrega Rodrigues Xavier
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
A. J. de Lucena, L. de Faria Peres, Otto Correa Rotunno Filho, and J. R. de Almeida Franca
IEEE
This paper presents a proposal for estimating land surface temperature (LST) for the metropolitan area of Rio de Janeiro (MARJ), Brazil, based on Landsat 5 and 7 data from 1984 to 2010. The main objective is to emphasize the need for greater accuracy in urban heat island studies, overlooking a series of essential steps to retrieve LST as close as possible to the true, including cloud masking techniques, atmospheric correction and surface emissivity.
L. M. T. Oliveira, G. B. França, R. M. Nicácio, M. A. H. Antunes, T. C. C. Costa, A. R. Torres, and J. R. A. França
Informa UK Limited
This study aims at improving the understanding of the behaviour of vegetation in Brazil due to the regional influences of climatic events, specifically the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO). To accomplish this we used a set of filtered data from the European Fourier-Adjusted and Interpolated Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (EFAI-NDVI), generated by the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR), along with the Vegetation Condition Index (VCI), with spatial resolution of 0.1° × 0.1° and temporal resolution of 10 days, covering the period from 1995 to 1999. Through analysis of these time series based on principal components transformation, we evaluated the influence and location of the ENSO effects in both datasets. The results show teleconnection patterns between climatic conditions in the Pacific Ocean and vegetation in specific locations in Brazil. Principal component 9 of the EFAI-NDVI presented significant correlations with the Southern Oscillation Index (SOI), R = −0.48, and with the Multivariate ENSO Index (MEI), R = 0.62, at p < 0.01. For the VCI, principal component 3 showed the greatest relations with the SOI, R = 0.45, and MEI, R = −0.51, at p < 0.01. The use of VCI has not improved the response of the ENSO's teleconnection in relation to NDVI. The eigenvector field of component EFAI-NDVI indicated a greater influence of the phenomenon, mainly in the north, north-east and parts of the southern regions of the country. These findings show that data on plant cover reflectance captured by polar orbit satellites can be used as indicators of interannual climatic variability.
José Ricardo A. França and Bruno Muniz Duarte
American Institute of Physics
Clouds play an extremely important role in the physical processes of the atmosphere, in different space and time scales. They affect the energy budget in all atmosphere levels by interacting with solar and earth radiation. The characteristics of clouds that influence the energy budget can be quantified by some physical parameters which classify each cloud type. Hence, it’s possible to use these parameters in numerical modeling in order to improve model diagnosis and, consequently, prognosis. The most practical way to obtain cloud information is through remote sensing, since direct access is not easy to achieve. This paper uses data from MODIS sensor (from when it became available in 2000 on TERRA platform until nowadays) to retrieve cloud properties and analyze two cases for six distinct regions in South America and compare the microphysical structure of stratiform cloud types in each of these regions. The analyzed parameters on this paper are Cloud Effective Particle Radius and Optical Thickness. Some re...