Leila Farhadi

leila farhadi

Leila Farhadi

Associate Professor


Contact:

SEH 3850 | Office Hours: M,W: 2:30 pm - 4:00 pm; R: 9:00 am - 11:00 am (remote)

Professor Leila Farhadi is interested in understanding and modeling land surface and land-atmosphere interaction and exchange processes by utilizing innovative remote sensing, optimization and numerical modeling techniques. In particular, she is interested in the development of calibration-free techniques for estimating water balance, energy balance and carbon cycle parameters and flux components using remotely sensed data.

Her current projects are “Coupled Estimation of Evapotranspiration and Recharge from Remotely Sensed Land Surface Moisture and Temperature," funded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA); “Observation-Driven Mapping of the Linkages between the Terrestrial Water, Energy and Carbon Cycles” funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF); “Hydraulic Parameter Estimation by Remotely-Sensed Top Soil Moisture Observations with the Model Reduced Variational Data Assimilation Methodology," funded by US Geological Survey (DCWRRI-USGS); and “Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) for Global Estimation of Evapotranspiration and Recharge," with funding provided by the George Washington University.


  • B.S., Sharif University of Technology, 2001
  • M.S., Sharif University of Technology, 2003
  • Ph.D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2012

Theses and Dissertations

  • Farhadi, L. “ Estimation of Land Surface Water and Energy Balance Flux Components using Conditional Sampling of Surface States” Ph.D. Dissertation, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA, 2012
  • Farhadi, L., “Numerical Modeling of Irregular Free Surface Flow using the Fully Lagrangian Method of Moving Particle Semi implicit (MPS)” M.Sc. thesis, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering , Sharif University of Technology, Tehran, Iran, 2003

Selected Journal Papers: 

  • Abdolghafoorian, A., & Farhadi, L. (2019). Estimation of surface turbulent fluxes from land surface moisture and temperature via a variational data assimilation framework. Water Resources Research, 55. https://doi.org/10.1029/2018WR024580
  • Nabian, M.A.; Farhadi, L. MR-WC-MPS: A Multi-Resolution WC-MPS Method for Simulation of Free-Surface Flows. Water 2019, 11, 1349. https://doi.org/10.3390/w11071349
  • Lu, Y., Steele-Dunne, S. C., Farhadi, L., & van de Giesen, N., Mapping surface heat fluxes by assimilating SMAP soil moisture and GOES land surface temperature data, Water Resources Research, 2017 Dec URL: https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/2017WR021415
  • Farhadi, L., Entekhabi, D., Salvucci, G. (2016). Mapping Land Water and Energy Balance Relations Through Conditional Sampling of Remote Sensing Estimates of Atmospheric Forcing and Surface States. Water Resources Research, 52, 2737–2752, doi:10.1002/2015WR017680.
  • Abdolghafoorian1, A., Farhadi, L. (2016), Uncertainty Quantification in Land Surface Hydrologic Modeling: Toward an Integrated Variational Data Assimilation Framework, IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Applied Earth Observations and Remote Sensing, 9(6), 2628-2637, doi: 10.1109/JSTARS.2016.2553444
  • Abdolghafoorian, A., Farhadi, L., Bateni, S.M., Margulis, S. A., Xu, T. (2016), Characterizing the Effect of Vegetation Dynamics on the Bulk Heat Transfer Coefficient to Improve Variational Estimation of Surface Turbulent Fluxes, J. Hydrometeor., 18, 321–333, doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1175/JHM-D-16-0097.1
  • Nabian, M. A., and L. Farhadi (2016), Multiphase Mesh-Free Particle Method for Simulation of Granular Flows and Sediment Transport, Journal of Hydraulic Engineering (2016): 04016102, doi:  dx.doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)HY.1943-7900.0001275
  • Farhadi, L., Reichle, R. H., De Lannoy, G. J., & Kimball, J. S. (2014), Assimilation of Freeze/ThawObservations into the NASA Catchment Land Surface Model. Journal of Hydrometeorology, Journal of Hydrometeorology, 16(2), pp.730-743, doi:  http://dx.doi.org/10.1175/JHM-D-14-0065.1
  • Farhadi, L., D. Entekhabi, G. Salvucci, and J. Sun (2014), Estimation of land surface water and energy balance parameters using conditional sampling of surface states, Water Resources Research, 50(2),  1805-1822, doi: 10.1002/2013WR014049
  • Sun, J., Salvucci, G., Entekhabi, D., Farhadi, L. (2010): Parameter Estimation of Coupled Water and Energy Balance Models Based on Stationary Constraints of Surface States, Water Resources Research, Volume 47, W02512, 16 PP, doi: 10.1029/2010WR009293
  • Ataie-Ashtiani, B., G. Shobeyri, L. Farhadi (2008), Modified Incompressible SPH Method for Simulating Free Surface Problems, Fluid Dynamics Research, 40(9), pp.637-661, doi:  http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.fluiddyn.2007.12.001
  • Ataie-Ashtiani, B., L. Farhadi (2006), Stable Moving Particle Semi-Implicit Method for Free Surface Flows, Fluid Dynamics Research, 38(4), pp.241-256, doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.fluiddyn.2005.12.002

Conference papers

  • Farhadi, L., D. Entekhabi, G. Salvucci, Mapping Land Water and Energy Balance Relations Through Conditional Sampling of Remotely Sensed Surface Soil Moisture and Temperature States, The International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium 2015 (Proceeding of IGARSS 2015)
  • Abdolghafoorian, A., Farhadi, L., Estimation of Surface fluxes of Heat and Moisture and Their Uncertainty Using Variational Data Assimilation Methodology, International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium 2015 (Proceeding of IGARSS 2015)
  • Nabian, M. A., & Farhadi, L., (2016). “Multiphase MPS Model for Simulation of Granular Flows and Sediment Transport”, ASME FED 2016, In Review.
  • Nabian, M. A., and Farhadi, L. (2015). “A multiphase mesh-free particle method for modeling sediment transport via dam-break.” In Proceedings of the 2015 ASME-JSME-KSME Joint Fluid Engineering Conference
  • Nabian, M. A., and Farhadi, L. (2014). “Numerical Simulation of Solitary Wave Using the Fully Lagrangian Method of Moving Particle Semi Implicit.” In Proceedings of the ASME 2014 4th Joint US-European Fluids Engineering Division Summer Meeting, V01DT30A006-V01DT30A017, American Society of Mechanical Engineers. doi:10.1115/fedsm2014-22237.
  • Nabian, M. A., and Farhadi, L. (2014). “Stable Moving Particle Semi Implicit Method for Modeling Waves Generated by Submarine Landslides.” In Proceedings of the ASME 2014 International Mechanical Engineering Congress & Exposition, V007T09A019-V007T09A028, American Society of Mechanical Engineers. doi:10.1115/IMECE2014-22237.
  • Nabian, M. A., and Farhadi, L., (2014). “Simulating Water Waves Generated by Underwater Landslide with MPS and WC-MPS.” In Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Hydrodynamics, ICHD, Singapore, 859-866. ISBN 978-981-09-2175-0.
  • Moghadam, M., D. Entekhabi, L. Farhadi, Y. Goykhman, M. Liu, A. Mahajan, D. Nayyar, Shuman and D. Teneketzis (2008), Initial Analyses and Demonstration of a Soil Moisture Smart Sensor Web, NASA Earth Science Technology Conference, University of Maryland, USA
  • Farhadi, L.,  B. Ataie Ashtiani (2004), A Stable Moving Particle Semi-Implicit Method for Free Surface Flows, Computational Methods in Water Resources Conference, Chapel hill, North Carolina, USA
  • Farhadi, L. &  B. Ataie Ashtiani (2003), Fully Meshless Lagrangian Numerical Method for Prediction of Free Water Surface”, International Conference on Hydraulics of Dams and River Structures, Tehran, Iran
  • Farhadi, L., (2003), A Particle Meshless method for Simulating Incompressible Inviscid Free Surface Fluids, International Conference on Civil Engineering, Malang, Indonesia

Selected Presentations

  • Farhadi, L., (2017), Assimilating Remotely Sensed Land Surface State Data into the Coupled Water and Energy Balance Model, AWRA-NCR (American Water Resources Association- National Capital Region), Applications of Remote Sensing and Space Technologies in Water Resources Management, Remote Sensing, April 2017.
  • Farhadi, L., Abdolghafoorian, A. (2017), An Integrated Variational Data Assimilation Methodology for Robust Estimation of State and Parameters of the Terrestrial Water and Energy Cycle, American Meteorological Society (AMS), 97th Annual Meeting, Jan 2017.
  • Farhadi, L., Abdolghafoorian, A.  (2016), Estimation of Land Surface Evapotranspiration Using Variational Data Assimilation Method: Application Drought Monitoring, AWRA-NCR  (American Water Resources Association- National Capital Region) Water Resources Symposium on Rethinking the Value of Water: Innovations in Research, Technology, policy and management, The Water Environment and Management panel, UDC, April 8th 2016.
  • Farhadi, L. (2016), Mapping Land Water and Energy Balance Relations Through Conditional Sampling of Remote Sensing Estimates of Atmospheric Forcing and Surface States, Center for Ocean-Land- Atmospheric (COLA) Studies at George Mason University, Fairfax, VA.
  • Farhadi, L. (2015), Uncertainty Quantification in Land Surface Hydrological Modeling, USDA, Hydrology and remote sensing laboratory (Oct 15th, 2015), invited talk
  • Farhadi, L., (2015), A Hessian-Based Method for Uncertainty Quantification of Parameters of Terrestrial Water and Energy Balance Equations, American Geophysical Union, San Franciso, CA, USA Invited talk
  • Farhadi, L., Abdolghafoorian*, A. (2015), Improving Variational Estimation of Surface Turbulent Fluxes Through Characterizing the Effect of Vegetation Dynamics on the Bulk Heat Transfer, American Geophysical Union, San Franciso, CA, USA
  • Farhadi, L., D. Entekhabi, G. Salvucci (2015), Mapping Land Water and Energy Balance Relations Through Conditional Sampling of Remotely Sensed Surface Soil Moisture and Temperature States, IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium, Milan, Italy
  • Farhadi, L., Abdolghafoorian*, A., (2015), Estimation of Surface fluxes of Heat and Moisture and Their Uncertainty Using Variational Data Assimilation Methodology, SEAS R&D showcase.
  • Farhadi L. (2014), Development of Data assimilation Techniques for Hydrological Applications, Catchment-based Hydrological Model Data Assimilation (CAHMDA VI) and Hydrologic Ensemble Prediction Experiment ( HEPEX-DAFOH III) Joint workshop, Austin, texas, USA, Keynote speaker
  • Farhadi, L., R. Reichle, G. De Lannoy (2013), Assimilation of freeze-thaw observations into the NASA Catchment land surface model, Sixth WMO Symposium on Data Assimilation, NOAA Center for Weather and Climate Prediction
  • Farhadi, L., R. Reichle, G. De Lannoy, J. Kimball (2013), Assimilation of freeze-thaw observations into the NASA Catchment land surface model, 94th AMS annual meeting, Atlanta, Georgia, USA
  • Farhadi, L., R. Reichle, G. De Lannoy, J. Kimball (2013), Assimilation of freeze-thaw observations into the NASA Catchment land surface model, American Geophysical Union 

 

  • National Science Foundation CAREER Award, 2019
  • SEAS Junior Teaching Award, School of Engineering and Applied Science, 2018
  • NASA New (Early Career) Investigator Award in Earth Sciences, The National Aeronautics and Space Administration, 2018
  • Schoettler Fellowship Award, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, MIT (2006)
  • Tavakkoli Prize for the graduate student in the forefront of innovative research work, Sharif University