Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 25, 2026

Simulating Impacts of Ice Storms on Forest Ecosystems
Published on: June 30, 2020
Impact of deforestation in the Amazon basin on cloud climatology
Jingfeng Wang1, Frédéric J F Chagnon, Earle R Williams
1Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA. jfwang@mit.edu
Abstract:
Shallow clouds are prone to appear over deforested surfaces whereas deep clouds, much less frequent than shallow clouds, favor forested surfaces. Simultaneous atmospheric soundings at forest and pasture sites during the Rondonian Boundary Layer Experiment (RBLE-3) elucidate the physical mechanisms responsible for the observed correlation between clouds and land cover. We demonstrate that the atmospheric boundary layer over the forested areas is more unstable and characterized by larger values of the convective available potential energy (CAPE) due to greater humidity than that which is found over the deforested area. The shallow convection over the deforested areas is relatively more active than the deep convection over the forested areas. This greater activity results from a stronger lifting mechanism caused by mesoscale circulations driven by deforestation-induced heterogeneities in land cover.
Related Concept Videos
What is Climate?
Global Climate Change
Threats to Biodiversity
Precipitation Processes
Microbes and Climate Change
Ecological Disturbance