PRELIMINARY PROGRAM

Monday 23 September

Icebreaker sponsored by Quaesta Instruments LLC

From 6pm onwards in the Whiskey bar of The Plough Inn, Hillsborough, BT266AG

Tuesday 24 September

Session Chair: t.b.a.

9:00   Welcome by Steven Morrison, Head of AFBI Hillsborough

9:10   Keynote: The physics of Cosmic-Ray Neutron Sensing: Neutron evaporation and propagation at the land atmosphere interface, Jannis Weimar

9:40   Response of bare and moderated neutron detectors under different environmental conditions, Daniel Rasche, Martin Schrön, Jannis Weimar, Markus Köhli, Theresa Blume and Andreas Güntner

10:00 Pushing the limits of COSMOS: monitoring water content in deserts, complex terrain, and airships, Martin Schrön et al.

10:20 Discussions

10:30 – Tea/Coffee Break

11:00 A comprehensive evaluation of neutron monitor based cosmic ray flux corrections for CRNS, Lasse Hertle, Steffen Zacharias and Martin Schrön

11:20 Incoming Neutron Flux Correction: an empirical approach to determining the site-specific correction parameter, Jonathan Evans and the whole COSMOS-UK Team

11:40 A new ground level neutron monitor for the United Kingdom, Michael Aspinall, Tilly L. Alton, Cory L. Binnersley, Steven C. Bradnam, Carlo Cazzaniga, Stephen Croft, Christopher Frost, Malcolm J. Joyce, Dakalo Mashao, Lee W. Packer, Tony Turner and James A. Wild

12:00 CRNS Networks for Space Weather: Progress and Challenges, Fraser Baird, Keith A Ryden, Fan Lei and Clive Dyer

12:20 Discussions

12:30 – Lunch

Session Chair: t.b.a.

14:00 Keynote: Effect of Biomass Water Dynamics in Cosmic-Ray Neutron Sensor Observations: A Long-Term Analysis of Maize-Soybean Rotation in Nebraska, Tanessa Morris, Trenton Franz and Sophia Becker

14:30 Using cosmic-ray neutron sensing for monitoring plant traits, Heye Reemt Bogena, C. Brogi, J. Jakobi, J. A. Huisman, J. Bates, C. Montzka and M. Schmidt

14:50 Use of satellite-based vegetation indices and thermal neutron intensities to investigate biomass effects on roving CRNS measurements, Cosimo Brogi, H. R. Bogena, E. Capitanio, A. D. Rocha, F. Nieberding and J. A. Huisman

15:10 – Break

15:40 Evaluating the effect of cover crops on soil hydrology in orchards using cosmic ray sensors, Isaya Kisekka, Srinivasa Peddinti, Charlie Chen, Anish Sapkota and Mathew Roby

16:00 Evaluating seasonal soil water storage in an irrigated cropped field using cosmic-ray neutron sensing and soil hydrological modelling, Lena Scheiffele, Katya Dimitrova-Petrova, María Olivia García Quiroz and Sascha E. Oswald

16:20-17:00 Discussions

 

18:30 Conference Dinner at The Plough Inn, Hillsborough, BT266AG with live traditional Irish music

Wednesday 25 September

Session Chair: t.b.a.

9:00   Keynote, Boron Based Neutron Sensing in COSMIC-SWAMP, Patrick Stowell on behalf of the COSMIC-SWAMP collaboration

9:30   Development of a site-specific standardised Cosmic Ray Neutron Sensor (CRNS) calibration protocol, Konstantin Shishkin, Owen Fenton, Klara Finkele, Tamara Hochstrasser and Paul Murphy

9:50   A Hydrus-1D model to harmonise soil moisture measurement scales from cosmic-ray neutron sensing to point sensors: application to COSMOS-UK data validation and quality assurance, Tim Howson, Sadra Emamalizadeh, Jonathan Evans, Gabriele Baroni and Philip Vincent

10:10 Using cosmic-ray neutron measurements to validate gamma-ray spectrometry soil moisture estimation at three landcover types, Mie Andreasen, Steven Van der Veeke, Han Limburg, Ronald Koomans and Majken C. Looms

10:30 – Tea/Coffee Break

11:00 Sensing Arctic Snow: First insights into calibrating a Cosmic Ray Neutron Sensor on the Archipelago of Svalbard for Snow Water Equivalent monitoring, Nora Krebs, Paul Schattan, Martin Schrön, Lasse Hertle, Julia Boike, Sebastian Westermann, Marco Mazzolini, Clarissa Willmes, Simon Filhol, Christine Fey, Solveig Landmark, Steffen Zacharias and Peter Dietrich

11:20 Simultaneous measurement of Snow Water Equivalent by cosmic neutrons and muons detection, Enrico Gazzola, Luca Stevanato, Mauro Valt, Stefano Gianessi1, Barbara Biasuzzi, Luca Morselli, Marcello Lunardon and Federica Lorenzi

11:40 Spatial and temporal variation of soil water content by cosmic-ray neutron sensors in Mediterranean agroecosystems, Leticia Gaspar Ferrer, Ana Navas and Trenton E. Franz

12:00 Large-scale soil moisture monitoring using multiple rail-based cosmic-ray neutron systems: challenges and opportunities for an automatic CRNS roving network, Daniel Altdorff, Sascha E. Oswald, Solveig Landmark, Steffen Zacharias, Peter Dietrich, Sabine Attinger and Martin Schrön

 

12:30 Field trip to Glenwherry, Cosmos UK site (including packed lunch)

Program:

14:00 Overview of work at the CAFRE Hill Farm, Nicola Warden, CAFRE

14:30 Site visit of the COSMOS UK station

15:30 Afternoon tea/coffee and scones back at the centre.

Presentations of Research Projects at Glenwherry:

16:00 Carbon flux surveillance in the uplands of Northern Ireland, Phil Jordan, Ulster University

16:20 Monitoring the Carbon and Water Balance of Peatlands in NI, Eimear Reeve, NI Environment Agency

16:40 Peat NI - An investigation of emission factors for high organic matter soils managed as intensive grassland in Northern Ireland, Suzanne Higgins, AFBI

17:00 Depart Glenwherry

 

18:00 Dinner as part of the field drip at Tullyglass Hotel Ballymena Co Antrim BT421HJ

21:00 Arrival back in Hillsborough

Thursday 26 September

Session Chair: t.b.a.

9:00   Keynote: Getting Successful Impact in Weather Forecasting, Farming and Environmental Risks using CRNS Soil Moisture Observations, Jonathan Evans

9:30   The Irish Soil Moisture Observation Network (ISMON): Inter-Institutional Collaboration to Establish Long-Term Infrastructure, Klara Finkele and ISMON Team

9:50   Next Generation Soil Moisture and Snow Water Equivalent Monitoring Using Cosmic Ray Neutron Sensing by the U.S. Geological Survey, Todd Caldwell, Gwendolyn Davies, Trenton Franz, Brandon Fleming, Robert Lotspeich, Shawn Naylor, Meredith Reitz, Graham Sexstone, Michelle Stern and Brian Pellerin

10:10  Integration of soil moisture measurements into the observation network of the German Meteorological Service – the project IsaBoM, Mathias Herbst, Leonhard Hufnagl, Wolfgang Kurtz and Jan Lenkeit

10:30 – Tea/Coffee Break

11:00  Establishing Ground Referencing Network through the Korean cOsmic-ray Soil Moisture Observing System (KOSMOS) for Integrating Satellite Images, Jaehwan Jeong, Kiyoung Kim and Hyungsuk Kimm

11:20 The status of the COSMOS network operated by CMA in China, Yongchao Zhu, Dongli Wu, Guan Hong, Yaohui Shi and Shibo Fang

11:40 COSMOS-UK Operations – Network Standardisation to deliver over 10 years of near real time soil moisture and hydrometeorological data, Phil Vincent and COSMOS-UK Team

12:00 Advancing CRNS Processing: Towards Long-Term, Sustainable Research Tools, Daniel Power, Steffen Zacharias, Fredo Erxleben, Thomas Förster, Rafael Rosolem and Martin Schrön

12:20 Lunch

Session Chair: t.b.a.

13:30 Recharge modelling using in a semi-arid tropical watershed, Deepti B Upadhyaya, Rajsekhar Kandala, Laurent Ruiz, Jonathan Evans, Ross Morrison and Sekhar Muddu

13:50 Role of infiltration on land–atmosphere feedbacks in Central Europe: WRF-Hydro simulations evaluated with cosmic-ray neutron soil moisture measurements, Joël Arnault, Benjamin Fersch, Martin Schrön, Heye Reemt Bogena, Harrie-Jan Hendricks Franssen and Harald Kunstmann

14:10 Future increases in soil moisture drought frequency at UK monitoring sites: merging the JULES land model with observations and convection-permitting UK Climate Projections, Magdalena Szczykulska, Chris Huntingford, Elizabeth Cooper and Jonathan G. Evans

14:30 – Tea/Coffee Break

Session Chair: Klara Finkele

15:00 Keynote: From Research to Operations – The Next Steps from a National Meteorological Service Point of View, Eoin Moran, Klara Finkele, Padraig Flattery, Sarah Gallagher, Haleh Karbala Ali and Saji Varghese

15:30 Project SoMMet - Soil Moisture Metrology, Miroslav Zboril, María de los Ángeles Millán Callado and the SoMMet Consortium

15:50 European and Global Environmental Research Infrastructures – key partners towards a global CRNS network, Steffen Zacharias and Daniel Power

16:10 Towards the establishment of a global COsmic-ray Soil Moisture Observing System, Rafael Rosolem and Global COSMOS team

16:30 Planery discussion

17:00 Close of Conference

Friday 27 September

Optional guided tour of Hillsborough Castle at 10 am the meeting point is at the gates, opposite The Plough Inn.