MIRRA | MIRRA: Microclimate Real-time Remote Applications

Summary
Climate change, and its impacts on ecological, agricultural, and other societal systems, is often studied by relying on temperature data derived from official weather stations. Yet, these data do not capture microclimates, influenced by vegetation, soil and topography, operating at spatial scales relevant to the majority of organisms on Earth. Detecting and attributing climate-change impacts with confidence and certainty will only be possible if we better quantify how temperatures are changing in forests, mountains, shrublands, and other remote habitats. Policy makers and land managers urgently need open access to more microclimate data.
Here, we develop an open access, integrative Microclimate Real-time Remote Applications (MIRRA) instrument with an associated authoritative, online database to solve this problem. There is an urgent need for a novel, miniature and simple self-assembly open access device with free online data access.
The overarching aim of MIRRA is to develop a miniature and simple self-assembly instrument for instantaneous, long-term and remote measurements of microclimate with optimized power usage and data transfer via cellular connectivity. All data become automatically available to everybody online, and MIRRA will thus substantially increase the availability of open access real-time microclimate data from all over the world. As a proof-of-concept showcase, and building on ERC StG FORMICA, we will install the MIRRA system in 45 forests spread across Europe.
With the dawn of such novel sensor technology for the long-term, low-cost, real-time and remote sensing of microclimates, we lay the foundation and open a wide range of possibilities to map microclimates in different ecosystems, feeding a next generation of models. This system will serve a multitude of societal needs, now and into the future as climate change accelerates.
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More information & hyperlinks
Web resources: https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101067679
Start date: 01-12-2023
End date: 31-05-2025
Total budget - Public funding: - 150 000,00 Euro
Cordis data

Original description

Climate change, and its impacts on ecological, agricultural, and other societal systems, is often studied by relying on temperature data derived from official weather stations. Yet, these data do not capture microclimates, influenced by vegetation, soil and topography, operating at spatial scales relevant to the majority of organisms on Earth. Detecting and attributing climate-change impacts with confidence and certainty will only be possible if we better quantify how temperatures are changing in forests, mountains, shrublands, and other remote habitats. Policy makers and land managers urgently need open access to more microclimate data.
Here, we develop an open access, integrative Microclimate Real-time Remote Applications (MIRRA) instrument with an associated authoritative, online database to solve this problem. There is an urgent need for a novel, miniature and simple self-assembly open access device with free online data access.
The overarching aim of MIRRA is to develop a miniature and simple self-assembly instrument for instantaneous, long-term and remote measurements of microclimate with optimized power usage and data transfer via cellular connectivity. All data become automatically available to everybody online, and MIRRA will thus substantially increase the availability of open access real-time microclimate data from all over the world. As a proof-of-concept showcase, and building on ERC StG FORMICA, we will install the MIRRA system in 45 forests spread across Europe.
With the dawn of such novel sensor technology for the long-term, low-cost, real-time and remote sensing of microclimates, we lay the foundation and open a wide range of possibilities to map microclimates in different ecosystems, feeding a next generation of models. This system will serve a multitude of societal needs, now and into the future as climate change accelerates.

Status

SIGNED

Call topic

ERC-2022-POC1

Update Date

31-07-2023
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Horizon Europe
HORIZON.1 Excellent Science
HORIZON.1.1 European Research Council (ERC)
HORIZON.1.1.0 Cross-cutting call topics
ERC-2022-POC1 ERC PROOF OF CONCEPT GRANTS1
HORIZON.1.1.1 Frontier science
ERC-2022-POC1 ERC PROOF OF CONCEPT GRANTS1