The physiology of nature

Hydrological endoscopy

In the last few days, I had to visit an otolaryngologist due to a persistent and mysterious sinusitis.

During the consultation, the doctor surprised me by inserting a small tube through my nose and instructed me to look at a screen. At that moment, I clearly saw the inside of my own pharynx — a sharp image of the ongoing infection, reddened and inflamed.

It was uncomfortable, revealing, and led me to take an antibiotic.

The experience of observing the internal workings of the body in real time made me think about how, in hydrology (and other environmental sciences), we resort to similar strategies to understand the dynamics of nature.

Just as medicine uses cameras and sensors to observe internal and invisible processes, we also seek to see the “physiology” of the landscape, the hydrological, sedimentological, and biogeochemical cycles. Instead of endoscopes, we use in situ and orbiting sensors.

The great floods

It was with this in mind that I explored the Amazonia-1 satellite images, available in the INPE catalogue, in the context of the great floods that hit Rio Grande do Sul in September 2023 and May 2024.

Despite portraying a true disaster, the result of our own incompetence as a society, it is also possible to see a sublime beauty in the dynamic patterns.

Through them, the path of the sediments is revealed, as well as the duration of particulate suspension in Lake Guaíba and the Patos Lagoon, and the time they take to settle or proceed to the Atlantic Ocean.

Plumes of mud that advance and retreat in the Lagoon Estuary, with the dynamic interaction of saltwater inflow.

The photo becomes a film

With some programming, it is possible to assemble animations that make this fluid and temporary dynamic visible.