Claudia R. Mesquita

Preliminary evaluation of lightning-location-system peak current estimates based on truth ground references

The peak currents of first strokes measured in the instrumented tower of Morro do Cachimbo Station and estimated by the Brazilian Lightning Location System are compared. Though the number of events is reduced, seven first strokes, the evaluation shows a trend of the LLS to underestimate the amplitudes of first-stroke currents. The mean ratio between the measured and estimated peak-currents exceeds 1.4.

The Future’s Reverse: Dystopia and Precarity in Adirley Queirós’s Cinema

The staging of uncertain present scenarios and the speculation of “future times” have become ways for contemporary Brazilian cinema to color its dystopian representations of the country’s big cities experiences in postapocalyptic tones. Testimonies and other documentary formats coexist with fictional treatments, including a deliberately precarious dialogue with classical genres. Some films present an intricate time construction, in which the “present” is between present reality and a speculation about the future, and the past, if it is ever there, comes in the form of ruins and objects of obsolete technology which remain in the filmed locations. This chapter looks at the work of Adirley Queiros, a filmmaker from Ceilândia (a satellite town created in 1971 to house slum dwellers removed from Brasilia), focusing on A cidade e uma so? (2012), Branco sai, preto fica (2014). In these films, the dystopian speculation comes as a response to concrete historical events: the planning, construction, and occupation of the Brazilian capital. Contrary to the aesthetics of erasure and the decontextualizing break with the past of Brasilia’s modern urban ideals, the cinema of Queiros turns itself towards the recovery of History, taking detours through fiction, which becomes in turn the preferred space for testimonies and archive images. In his films, the inventive appropriation of archive footage, classic film genres and real memories allows for the narrative development of what remains of the past, as well as of the precarious present of Ceilândia’s experience.

O fim e o princípio: Entre o mundo e a cena

This paper talks about the documentary O fim e o principio [The end and the beginning], by Eduardo Coutinho, filmed in a small rural community in the state of Paraiba. The movie was shot without previous research, and favors meetings with the unknown, having as its focus interviews with elderly people.

Analysis of LLS performance: Comparison of different central processors

Lightning Location Systems (LLS) data are important source to characterize lightning incidence considering extensive regions and allowing different analysis related to power system performance and protection actions against lightning incidence on transmission lines and distribution routes. After a recent upgrade of LLS central processor in Minas Gerais State, a performance analysis was done. The authors analyzed the improvements on location accuracy and peak current estimate of the LLS central processor. In order to perform it, two different reprocessing were done using the same database of sensor reports. So a comparison between lightning location data obtained by using of two different central processors is presented. Also lightning currents directly measured at Morro do Cachimbo Station (MCS) was used as reference data.

Updating the statistics of lightning currents measured at Morro do Cachimbo Station

Some parameters of the current waveforms of several negative flashes measured recently at Morro do Cachimbo Station were considered in relation to the values provided by a statistical evaluation developed previously for the data of a 13-years period of data acquisition there. The impact of these recent measured parameters in the median values of peak-current, front-times and time-to-half-peak-current was evaluated.