SAMBBA (South AMerican Biomass Burning Analysis)
The aim of the SAMBBA project is to investigate the properties of biomass burning aerosols over South America.
The main biomass burning season occurs during Sept/Oct when deforestation fires and agricultural burning are prolific, particularly over central and south eastern parts of Brazil.
These contribute to high loadings of biomass burning aerosol over much of South America with aerosol optical depths frequently exceeding 1 in many central parts of the continent.
SAMBBA is a consortium of 7 university groups, the UK Met Office and a number of Brazilian partners, which will deliver a suite of ground, aircraft and satellite measurements of
Amazonian BBA and use this data to:
1. improve our knowledge of BB emissions;
2. challenge and improve the latest aerosol process models;
3. challenge and improve satellite retrievals;
4. test predictions of aerosol influences on regional climate and weather over Amazonia and the surrounding regions made using the next generation of climate and NWP models with
extensive prognostic aerosol schemes; and
5. assess the impact of biomass burning on the Amazonian biosphere.