Ireland’s national climate services, soil moisture monitoring, and flood forecasting centre were among the topics presented to the annual meeting of the European Geosciences Union (EGU) by Met Éireann representatives last week.
The cross-divisional delegation was among more than 20,000 registered attendees from 120 countries at the EGU General Assembly 2025 in Vienna, Austria.
Climatologist, Dr Pádraig Flattery was on hand to present a PICO Presentation, entitled ‘Operationalising a National Framework for Climate Services (NFCS) in Ireland’, on behalf of the Climate Services Division team.
In the research, the team explored the successes, challenges, barriers and lessons learned in forming and operationalising of an NFCS in Ireland, since its establishment in 2022, offering insights for climate service providers internationally.
Hydrometeorologist, Matt Roberts meanwhile, represented the Flood Forecasting Centre in their poster presentation on ‘Optimizing Hydrometric Network Design for National Flood Forecasting and Warning Services (NFFWS)’.
This study outlined the ideal requirements for hydrometric data collection and transmission systems to support the NFFWS based on a number of key considerations. These include spatial and temporal coverage of rain gauges and river gauges, the placement of gauges in flood-prone areas, and having data of sufficient resolution to align with hydrological models.
Dr Ciarán Broderick from the Flood Forecasting Centre, presented his poster on Met Éireann’s enhancement of its fluvial flood forecasting system, which uses real-time hydrometeorological data and ensemble NWP forecasts to produce probabilistic river discharge forecasts with lead times of up to seven days.
Postdoctoral Researcher, Dr Haleh Karbala Ali also delivered a poster presentation on ‘Challenges and Opportunities with Soil Moisture Measurement in Ireland using Cosmic-Ray Neutron Sensing: Examples from an agriculture and a forest site’.
The research presented soil moisture estimates recorded since the launch of the Irish Soil Moisture Observation Network (ISMON) in 2021 by the Joint Working Group on Applied Agricultural Meteorology (AGMET).
UCD Postdoctoral Researcher, Dr Paul Brett also delivered an oral presentation on ‘Accounting for overwintering life-histories in an online pest risk assessment tool’. This online risk analysis model will be hosted by Met Éireann later in the year.
The annual EGU General Assembly aims to provide a forum for scientists, and specifically early career researchers, can present their work and discuss their ideas with experts in all fields of the Earth, planetary, and space sciences.
