Abstract
The RITY-2 phenology model was developed for the spatiotemporal simulation of the seasonal development of European spruce bark beetle, Ips typographus. RITY-2 is based on the PHENIPS model and was developed through improving PHENIPS with innovative approaches and calibrating and validating it for Slovenia. RITY-2 predictions are based on air temperatures from Integrated Nowcasting through a Comprehensive Analysis (INCA) system, which is used to calculate the effective bark temperature for beetle development. In this paper we describe the calculation procedure for RITY-2.•INCA enables high resolution spatial and temporal simulations and predictions.•An innovative procedure was introduced that finds the most appropriate spring date threshold from which the calculation of the phenological model is initiated.•Simplified and customized linear models for calculation of the air temperature in the forest and bark temperatures were developed.