No abstract

<p>Real-time soil moisture measurements are essential to manage for adaptive dynamic management of climate change adaptation and reduction of nutrient losses and greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture and forestry. Soil moisture status influences crop growth, run-off, groundwater recharge, land surface-atmospheric exchange dynamics and greenhouse gas emissions as well as the risk of forest fire danger.  Here we present the new Irish Soil Moisture Observation Network (ISMON) as an umbrella to bring together several recently established long-term environmental observational networks. These are: 1) initiative of the AGMET group (agmet.ie), 2) COSMOS UK – Northern Ireland, 3) Teagasc NASCO (National Agricultural Soil Carbon Observatory) and 4) Terrain-AI, all of which include several different methodologies for measuring soil moisture at field scale. For instance, AGMET is installing novel cosmic ray neutron sensors which can provide field averaged soil moisture estimates (400m diameter) and Teagasc NASCO and Terrain AI are using Time Domain Reflectometry probes. Such networks are seen as necessary to resolving the problem of scale between point, field-based measurements and satellite-derived soil moisture products and are important in monitoring key biogeochemical processes that vary rapidly in time and space. In the initial phase of the implementation of the ISMON network, the current distribution of the stations in relation to the other networks are presented. The ISMON aims to represent the most relevant soil types, land cover, and regional climate regimes to corroborate direct measurements of soil moisture; it will adapt its design to improve the monitoring network as required. The ISMON will make a valuable contribution to, and expand the international soil moisture monitoring network. </p>

<p>Since 2006 the Canadian Forest Fire Weather Index System (FWI) has been employed operationally at Met Éireann to predict the risk of forest fires in Ireland (Walsh, S, 2006). Around 11% or 770,000 ha of the total land area of Ireland is afforested, but there are also large areas of open mountain and peatlands covered in grasses, dwarf-shrub and larger woody shrub type vegetation which can provide fuel for spring wildfires under suitable conditions. Following winter, vegetation can be dead or have a very low live moisture content, and the flammability of this vegetation can be readily influenced by prevailing weather, especially following prolonged dry periods.</p> <p>The Department of Agriculture, Food and Marine is the Forest Protection authority in Ireland responsible for issuing Fire Danger Notices. These notices improve preparedness for fire responses and are based on information provided by Met Éireann who calculate the FWI and FWI components using observation data at synoptic stations, and the predicted FWI for the next five days ahead based on numerical weather prediction data.</p> <p>The FWI is determined based on the types of forest fuel and how quickly they dry out/get rewetted, and components of fire behaviour. The FWI represents the fire intensity as the rate of energy per unit length of fire front (kW/m). The components which provide the most accurate indication of risk under Irish conditions are the Fine Fuel Moisture Code and Initial Spread Index, based on the fuels involved and ignition patterns observed to date. Since 2022 Met Eireann provide the FWI as well as the individual components Fine Fuel Moisture Content and Initial Spread Index via the public website for synoptic stations. These indices are based on observations and a seven-day forecast into the future using ECMWF predictions. This allows all county councils responsible for wildfire preparedness to access this information swiftly and directly.</p> <p>Met Éireann also use the ANYWHERE multi-hazard warning tool which allows for visualisation of multiple fire-related risk factors and warning indices to be viewed simultaneously. The ANYWHERE system, in combination with our station-based forecast and antecedent conditions, provide fire managers and response teams with excellent information with which to make decisions. </p>