HIBISCUS is conducted through scientific and technical cooperation with IPMet/UNESP, the Institute for Meteorological Research of the State University of Sao Paulo (UNESP), located in Bauru (State of Sao Paulo). HIBISCUS balloon operations take place at the IPMet balloon facility (Latitude 22.355 deg. South ; Longitude 49.03 deg. West) where several balloon campaigns have already been conducted in the past, including the ENVISAT pre-HIBISCUS campaign in February 2003.

IPMet as well as a number of Brazilian research institutes are being strongly involved in HIBISCUS and TROCCINOX , under the umbrella of a TroCCiBras (Tropical Convection and Cirrus experiment Brazil) project supported by the Brazilian Ministry of Research. The TroCCibras contribution encompasses a variety of observations by two S-band radars, an aerosol lidar, radio-sondes every 6 hours, lightning networks, several flights of the Bandeirante research aircraft and the participation of several modelling groups in the interpretation of the data. A protocol has been signed for full data exchange between the three projects.

TroCCiBras brief description : TroCCiBras_brief_Engl.pdf (720 kB)

TroCCiBras proposal: TROCCIBRAS_all.pdf (3.5 MB)

A common workshop is planned for November 2004, from which co-authored papers are anticipated.