Preliminary study on the case of black rain in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil: A synoptic point of view

Abstract

Particles of soot from forest fires are transported by the wind, reaching distant locations and being deposited on the soil through precipitation, which clears the atmosphere, taking suspended particulate matter into its drops. The general circulation over South America indicates the possibility of soot from forest fires in the Amazon and Pantanal to be transported to southern Brazil. The event called “black rain” was observed in the period from 11 to 13 September 2020 at São Francisco de Assis City, in Rio Grande do Sul State (RS), and so this work aims to analyze if there were any anomalies of the flow that favored the occurrence of this event, given that there was a large number of fires in this period. Through ERA5 reanalysis data and GOES-16 satellite images, it was observed that on the three days under study low-level flow to the south of Brazil was more intense than normal, with the Low Level Jet occurrences, and on days 12 and 13 such flow to the south was also observed at 500 hPa. The precipitation was due to the instability of an extended trough from the Northwestern Argentinean Low. Thus, it is believed that there was a contribution from circulation at low and mid levels in the occurrence of black rain over RS.