Déforestation et climat au Mato-Grosso: premiers résultats de modélisation climatique à méso-échelle dans la région d'Alta Floresta (MT-Brésil)
Résumé
We used the RAMS mesoscale model to perform numerical simulations of the climatic effect of the deforestation in the Alta Floresta area (northern Mato Grosso, Brazil). This region is interesting because of the deep change of the vegetation cover between 1970 and 2000. Crop farming and pasture lands took the place of the rainforest as one goes along the advance of the agricultural farming communities. The images from the Landsat and NOAA satellites allow to quantify this evolution and to make available pertinent data for the numerical simulations. The results of the simulations « 1970 » and « 2000 » show the temperature rise and the fall in relative humidity following on the deforestation. Moreover, the spatial distribution of these climatic elements is more heterogeneous due to the increasing division of the forested area.