Contact InformationTitle
Associate Professor
Graduate Program Director – Atmospheric Physics
Education
Ph.D. 2004 State University at Campinas, Physics
M.S. 2000 State University at Campinas, Physics
B.S. 1998 State University at Campinas, Physics
Previous Experience
2019 Visiting professor, University of Granada, Spain
2017 – 2018 Visiting professor, University of Maryland Baltimore County, USA
2016 – 2021 Associate Professor, Physics Institute, University of Sao Paulo, Brazil
2015 Visiting professor, University of Manchester, UK
2008 – 2016 Assistant Professor, Physics Institute, University of Sao Paulo, Brazil
2007 – 2008 Assistant Researcher, Brazilian Institute for Space Research, Brazil
2004 – 2007 Postdoctoral Researcher, Brazilian Institute for Space Research, Brazil
Professional Interests
Dr. Barbosa studies how tropical rainforests interact with the atmosphere across a wide range of space and time scales. His research focuses especially on how deforestation and climate change affect rainfall, cloud formation, and the movement of water through the climate system. At large scales, his work examines how water released by the rainforest into the air can travel thousands of kilometers and help produce rain in other regions. At smaller scales, he studies how tiny particles in the air can influence clouds and how human activities can change these interactions.
To answer these questions, Dr. Barbosa’s group combines computer models with detailed observations of clouds and airborne particles collected over the Amazon rainforest. Their research includes studying how moisture moves through the atmosphere, how vegetation, the atmosphere, and rainfall influence one another, and how clouds over tropical forests grow from small, low clouds into organized thunderstorms.
Dr. Barbosa is always interested in hearing from outstanding postdoctoral researchers and students at all levels. Those interested in working with his group are welcome to contact him by email.
Selected Publications
See complete list of my publications: Henrique Barbosa’s publications and citations (Google Scholar)
- Forests sustain crops worldwide through flying rivers of recycled moisture, Barbosa, H. M. J., 2025: Nature Water, 3, 1220–1221
- Recurrent droughts increase risk of cascading tipping events by outpacing adaptive capacities in the Amazon rainforest, Wunderling, N., et al., 2022: PNAS, 119 (32) e2120777119
- Urban pollution greatly enhances formation of natural aerosols over the Amazon rainforest, Shrivastava et al., 2019: Nature Communications, volume 10, Article number: 1046
- Substantial convection and precipitation enhancements by ultrafine aerosol particles, Fan et al., 2018: Science, Vol. 359, Issue 6374, pp. 411-418
- Self-amplified Amazon forest loss due to vegetation-atmosphere feedbacks. Zemp et al., 2017: Nature Communications 8, Article number: 14681
- A deforestation-induced tipping point for the South American monsoon system. Boers et al., 2017: Nature Scientific Reports 7, Article number: 41489
- Amazon boundary layer aerosol concentration sustained by vertical transport during rainfall. Wang et al., 2016: Nature, 539, 416–419
- Satellite retrieval of cloud condensation nuclei concentrations by using clouds as CCN chambers. Rosenfeld et al., 2016: PNAS, 113 (21), 5828-5834
- Prediction of Extreme Floods in the Eastern Central Andes: A Complex Networks Approach, Boers et al., 2014: Nat. Commun. 5:5199
Some paper’s highlights:
2023
Impact of Amazon’s climate-driven drought may last until 2026
2022
Less rain in the rainforest: Amazon even more vulnerable than previously thought
2018
Even the tiniest aerosol particles can kick up a storm
2017
Fewer trees mean less rain for the Amazon basin
2016
Amazon rainstorms transport atmospheric particles for cloud formation
2014
New forecasting method: Predicting extreme floods in the Andes mountains
2011
Rivers on high, Anna Armstrong, Nature Geoscience 4, 580