The Environmental Physics Research Group is coordinated by Dr. Nisia Krusche. It is part of the Center of Computational Sciences. There are three research lines developed by the group. In Studies of Atmospheric Turbulence, the main issue is the description of coherent structures of the atmospheric turbulence in the Superficial Layer. We also propose to find out the atmospheric conditions that favor high concentration of atmospheric pollutants in the region of Rio Grande. The research in Applied Climate Modeling applies regional applications of regional climatemodels for operational climate forecast and study of future scenarios, identifiesclimate phenomena studying meteorological data. We also intend to apply a regional climate numerical model to forecast the climate in the southern region of Brazil, to indicate planning to be carried out by areas of the local economy, as the artisan fishery. In Education in Geosciences, an evaluation of the knowledge of the students, from primary and undergraduate levels, of concepts that are the basis for the understanding of climate changes, such as climate, seasons, ozone layer, and greenhouse effect, has been done. This research will be extended so it can indicate tools for the teaching of these subjects.

In 2013, the projects “Simulation of Climate Changes using Multiagent Systems”, financed by FAPERGS, and “Applied Regional Climatic Modeling”, by PROCAD-CAPES, guided the research of the group in the line of climate modeling. We expect, as main result of the activities of this group, to perform numerical simulations of climate, especially for southern Brazil, applied to the regional climate problems, and studies of atmospheric turbulence, which also includes the dispersion of pollutants in the city of Rio Grande.