The Amazon rainforest has an extraordinary impact on the planet, producing about half of all the oxygen in the atmosphere.

Now a mast, taller than the Eiffel Tower, has been built deep in the heart of the forest – amid jaguars, snakes and giant trees – to monitor chemical changes in the air that could shed new light on global climate change.

The Amazon Tall Tower Observatory (Atto) is the tallest structure in South America. At 1,066ft (325m) – 3ft higher than Paris’s structure – its reach will allow researchers to gain a dramatic new perspective.

“For science, this is a very big and complex piece of work,” said Antonio Manzi, a researcher at the National Institute of Amazonian Research (Inpa) in Manaus in the state of Amazonas. “Here in Brazil, we had a great and well-documented interest in having a tall tower to better study the mechanisms of the atmosphere’s surface. Various scientific questions made this a necessity.”

The Amazon Tall Tower Observatory (Atto) is the tallest structure in South America at 1,066ft (325m) (Corbis)

Mr Manzi said there were four lines of research for the team of scientists, including chemical changes in the atmosphere, the formation of clouds and the effect of global warming on photosynthesis by plants far below. By monitoring such changes, researchers from Inpa and the Max Planck Institute in Germany are hoping to see how climate change is contributing to extreme weather events such as floods and droughts.

Stefan Wolff, from the Max Planck Institute, said that in the past decade, the state of Amazonas had seen two severe floods and two severe droughts. There are currently 39 districts of Amazonas in a state of emergency because of annual floods caused by rises in river levels, affecting almost 320,000 people.

Meanwhile, Sao Paulo has been suffering a historic drought, which some have attributed to deforestation in the rainforest. “When the temperature increases, we have more energy in the atmosphere,” Mr Wolff said. “And when we have more energy in the atmosphere, a part of this has to be released. A good way of releasing this is a strong rain so there’s a great probability that some rains will be even heavier.”

The rainforest was already seeing strong winds causing “blowdowns” of trees, Mr Wolff added. The Atto tower is expected to start operating in the second half of this year once the final equipment and lifts are installed.

The first stage of the €8.4m (£6m) project, launched in 2009, was to build two 260ft pilot towers on the site, 90 miles north of Manaus. Scientists chose the location for its pristine forest and lack of imminent development, which might interfere with the experiments.

In pictures: Biggest threats to the rainforests Show all 10 1 /10 In pictures: Biggest threats to the rainforests In pictures: Biggest threats to the rainforests Borneo Destruction of the rainforest, deforestation in Borneo In pictures: Biggest threats to the rainforests Brazil Aerial view af an area devastated by clandestine gold mining in the Jamanxim National Forest, state of Para. With 1,3 million hectares, the Jamanxim National Forest is a microsm that replicates what happens in the Amazon, where thousands of hectares of land are prey of illegal woodcutters, stock breeders and gold miners In pictures: Biggest threats to the rainforests Amazon rainforest Intensive logging makes rainforest fires more likely as the Earth warms Rex In pictures: Biggest threats to the rainforests Peru Miners known as "Maraqueros" ready a rustic type of hydraulic jet known locally as a "Chupadera," after hauling the device about 16-meters deep into a crater at a gold mine process in La Pampa in Peru's Madre de Dios region. A new threat now looms for the estimated 20,000 wildcat miners who toil in huge scar of denuded rainforest known as La Pampa In pictures: Biggest threats to the rainforests Peru A rope hangs around the trunk of a tree at a illegal gold mining process in La Pampa in Peru's Madre de Dios region. An estimated 20,000 miners toil in this malarial expanse of denuded rainforest known as La Pampa In pictures: Biggest threats to the rainforests Amazon rainforest The extent of the environmental damage in the Amazon rainforest afp/getty images In pictures: Biggest threats to the rainforests Indonesia Destruction remains from tropical rainforest in Kuala Cenaku in Riau Province, Sumatra. Norway entered a partnership with Indonesia to support Indonesia's efforts to reduce emissions from deforestation and degradation of forests and peat lands. The business of pulp, palm oil and wood are causing the deforestation of Sumatra, the largest island owned by Indonesia, and is contributing global climate change to the extinction of many of the world's rare species In pictures: Biggest threats to the rainforests Malaysia An area that has been cleared of rainforest to make way for a palm oil plantation in Sabah, Malaysia CORBIS In pictures: Biggest threats to the rainforests Indonesia Regenerated palm oil trees are seen growing on the site of destroyed tropical rainforest in Kuala Cenaku GETTY IMAGES In pictures: Biggest threats to the rainforests Brazil Brazil launched the Amazon Fund, aimed at protecting the rainforest so vital to the world's climate, and at combating climate change. In December 2008 Brazil launched a national climate change plan which proposed to cut the country's deforestation rate in half by 2018 Getty Images

But that remoteness brings unusual risks for the scientists and others going there. “The risks of animals – snakes, jaguars – they exist, because it’s

a jungle environment, the law of the jungle,” Mr Manzi said. With the Atto tower’s structure now complete, two maintenance technicians will remain on site, staying in contact with scientists via satellite phone.

The tower complements the Zotto tower in Siberia, which was also built in partnership with the Max Planck Institute in 2006. Data from the tower will be shared with scientists from both countries daily and almost in real-time.