As part of the Water Institute's WaterTalks lecture series, Poornima Unnikrishnan, Researcher, Department of Systems Design Engineering will present: Atmospheric moisture tracking.
This event will be offered in person on the University of Waterloo campus in EIT 1015 and online via Zoom.
More information
Atmospheric moisture recycling is the process of water evaporating from the earth’s surface, flowing through the atmosphere, and re-entering land as precipitation. Agriculture, a multibillion-dollar industry, is highly sensitive to weather and climate. The decisions related to agricultural production at all phases (near-term, mid-term, or long-term decisions) are highly dependent on the water availability to the crops. The identification of the ocean and land surface that contributes evaporation to a region’s precipitation can be of significant importance as they can be addressed and incorporated into water resources management tools and frameworks. The changes in the land use patterns and earth’s surface temperatures can alter the moisture recycle pattern across the globe which can cause adverse impacts on tropical forests, agricultural production, river flows, and wetlands. Modeling the process of atmospheric moisture transport and identifying source-sink relationships on a large scale is relatively a new research area. The models can play important roles in the analysis of variations in the relative importance of oceanic and terrestrial sources of precipitation. Here, in this Part 1 talk, we provide an overview of atmospheric moisture tracking and review the literature that explore various avenues in understanding the processes.
Speaker bio
Dr Poornima Unnikrishnan is currently a researcher at the Department of Systems Design Engineering, University of Waterloo working in the areas of hydrological extremes and atmospheric moisture tracking. Her current research include predicting prices of Fresh Produce for a large super market chain in Canada using both time series and AI techniques. Earlier, she worked in submarine groundwater discharge modelling in the National Center for Earth Science Studies and time series analysis and forecasts in the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, both in India.
The University of Waterloo is committed to achieving barrier-free accessibility for persons with disabilities who are visiting, studying or working at Waterloo. If you have questions concerning access or wish to request accommodations for this event, please contact Julie Grant (j26grant@uwaterloo.ca)