Mayors of the Metropolitan Region of Campinas approve acquisition of advanced radar
With the support of 20 city halls in the Metropolitan Region of Campinas (RMC) and the Metropolitan Agency of Campinas (Agemcamp), discussion begins on the construction of a Regional Meteorology Center, based on the acquisition of an advanced meteorological radar, evaluated worth R$3 million and scheduled to be installed at Unicamp by the end of this year. “In addition to the potential of the sensor, the important thing is that it is about building a reference center for strengthening the area of weather forecasting and studies of climate change and extreme events, inserting the University into the RMC through research, educational actions and provision of services”, says Ana Maria Ávila, researcher at the Center for Meteorological and Climatic Research Applied to Agriculture (Cepagri/Unicamp).
For the researcher, radar comes as an essential complement to build the idea of prevention in the face of intense events, which are expected to occur more frequently in the future, as data on climate change indicate. “The sensor has the capacity to capture rain from the drop that begins to fall, which allows monitoring the formation and movement of these events, and working together with the Civil Defense of each municipality to mitigate losses. The proposal to create regional meteorology centers has been around since the 1980s, with some attempts already taking place in the State of São Paulo. But this center, with this sensor and in this context, is quite innovative in the country.”
Professor Teresa Atvars, who is responsible for the General Coordination of the University (CGU), informs that the project aims to advance fundamentally in four areas. “One aspect is the availability of data and information through what we call a 'platform for reducing the risks of natural disasters', in a language that people can easily access and understand. The second is the educational aspect, an important feature of the University: for example, for our Science Museum, together with experts from Cepagri, to visit RMC schools, disseminating already established knowledge about the climate among children and young people.”
Research, adds the general coordinator of Unicamp, constitutes the third aspect, having as its source the immense amount of information that the radar will generate daily. “There is an area of science that involves analyzing large volumes of data. The question is how to treat this data, transforming what only researchers understand into information for laypeople. The fourth aspect is the provision of services. We need extra resources to maintain this apparatus and there are large companies demanding information about the climate in the region, such as Viracopos with its flight maps; CPFL, in preventing lightning and major events; Replan, which has already had a tank hit by lightning; or Parque das Flores de Holambra, under volumes of rain. Unicamp can act as a service provider so that these companies can improve their businesses.”
Professor Munir Salomão Skaf, Pro-Rector of Research, highlights the importance of this type of information for city halls, not only for Civil Defense in relation to possible floods and abrupt events, but also in the long term, in relation to agriculture and cultivation. of flowers and fruits. “Monitoring the region’s microclimate is extremely important for information and planning that serves agriculture and other aspects associated with the incidence of rain. We can monitor events, but the records need to be translated and passed quickly to the end consumer. This is a good opportunity for the development of new applications in the computational area. Climate change is on the agenda of the 21st century and we must be very well prepared, monitoring, obtaining data and alerting the population to make decisions.”
SOS Rain
In fact, the radar in the acquisition phase replaces a similar one, which was installed in front of the Exploratory Science Museum in October 2016, within the SOS Chuva thematic project, financed by Fapesp. According to Teresa Atvars, SOS Chuva expects this radar to remain in each participating institution for two years, a period that expires in August. “However, we decided that Unicamp would have a permanent radar, as Cepagri carries out an essential activity advising the Civil Defense of cities in the region. We identified possible financing agencies and, as we already have great integration with Agemcamp, this dialogue was natural. We held meetings within the scope of the CGU, PRP, Cepagri and also with the rector Marcelo Knobel, which resulted in the proposal approved by the mayors of the Metropolitan Region.”
Teresa Atvars explains that the radar is imported, produced to order due to the complex and expensive systems, and whose acquisition is being made possible thanks to the partnership with Agemcap and, particularly, the efforts of Ester Viana, executive director of the agency. “Everything is going very well and, furthermore, we are not going to start from scratch, as the radar currently installed is very similar and the technical staff are already used to the system, data collection and monitoring. The project is very integrative and we hope to respond well to specific demands from society. The idea is for Unicamp to be a regional hub in the climate area.”
Integrated system
According to Ana Ávila, the new radar is a biosensor that will make up a group of equipment that is already at Cepagri. “We have a meteorological station with almost 30 years of historical data, currently installed at the Science Museum, very close to the radar area. We also have an antenna for receiving satellite images and numerical weather forecast models, GeonetCast, which receives state-of-the-art images from Goes, launched in December 2017 – this data can now be accessed on the Cepagri page .”
The Cepagri researcher also mentions the sensors for measuring the level of flooding, one of which has been installed and, with the project, two more are in the process of being installed (on Avenida Orosimbo Maia and near Sousas, which are risk areas). “With these sensors we were able to integrate a set of data focused on water resources, flood monitoring and, even radar, has the potential to measure areas of rain and not just points (weather stations). In short, the meteorological stations, the radar and the satellite form a set of state-of-the-art sensors, with enormous potential for the development of research.”
Ana Ávila informs about the existence of other regional meteorology centers in the Northeast, Paraná and Santa Catarina (which, due to the events occurring in the state, acquired fixed and mobile radars this year). “The microexplosions and tornadoes in Campinas and the region in 2016 are what led mayors and communities to mobilize intensely. With the construction of this center in the state of São Paulo, we are currently at the cutting edge of the country. And we would obviously like to integrate with other centers, including the federal ones.”