Abstract: In this talk, I will present the development and validation of a new multiscale modeling framework for the multidimensional coupled system describing soil moisture and heat interactions in a shallow soil profile, capable of predicting upscaled soil-hydrological fluxes under different hydro-climate conditions. The targeted problem is of practical interest as accurate assessments of spatial and temporal variations of soil moisture and infiltration/evaporation fluxes are critical for many environmental and hydroclimatic applications.

Currently, existing models are limited to solving this highly nonlinear system of water and vapor phases, without addressing the various spatial and temporal scales involved. Moreover, when multiscale phenomena are taken into account, the high computational cost for such calculations are often infeasible to consider. This new multidimensional multiscale coupled system and its respective upscaled, and low computational cost version, use air temperature, solar radiation, and precipitation as parameters to determine the boundary conditions, through the upscaled energy balance equation. This formulation makes it more realistic and ready for coupling with atmosphere processes. The accuracy of this new upscaled formulation has been demonstrated by comparing with both, the fine-scale model and with field data. Thus, the proposed system presents the mathematical and physical based tools to better predict a key boundary condition concerning the evaporation (and water) budget. This in turn can be used as input into local and large-scale global climate modeling efforts to improve the accuracy of variables impacting climate change, its forecast and its consequences.

Keywords: Multiscale Modeling, Coupling Soil Subsurface and Atmosphere, Coupled System of Water and Heat interactions

Biography: Rosangela F. Sviercoski has a degree in Mathematic’s Education (UEPG-Brazil), a master's degree in Mathematics (UnB-Brazil) and a PhD in Applied Mathematics with minor in Hydrology from the University of Arizona - (UA-USA). She has post-doctorate from the Department of Soil and Environmental Sciences (SWES-UA); as a researcher assistant at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL-USA), and at the Department of Mathematics at Texas A&M (TAMU-USA), with a grant by the National Science Foundation (NSF). She was a visiting scientist in as Marie Curie International Incoming Fellow (IIF), at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (BAS-BG). Currently, she is an associate scientist at BAS and a visiting Professor in the Department of Mathematics at Oakland University – (OU-USA). Her current research areas include mathematical models for problems of multiple scales using analytical and computational homogenization techniques, generalized Laplace equation and its analytical approximation, effective coefficient, numerical methods using multiscale and multigrid with applications in linear and nonlinear diffusion equations and elasticity systems. She has also worked in private companies for developing information technology applications. In addition to research in mathematics, she has also developed project with an innovative contribution for teaching mathematics using an applied perspective, leading to the textbook: “Matemática Aplicada às Ciências Agrárias: Análise the Dados e Modelos” (UFV/CNPq/CAPES), where Calculus, Linear Algebra and Analytical Geometry are presented through applications in Agriculture Engineering using real data for analysis and modeling strategies.