The Sodankyla station (ICOS code FI-Sod) is situated at the Arctic Research Centre of the Finnish Meteorological Institute in Northern Finland, 7 km south of the town of Sodankyla and 100 km north of the Arctic Circle. The area within a 1.5 km radius around the FI-Sod tower is flat, the elevation is 180 m above sea level. The measurements are conducted in a Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) forest which has been naturally regenerated after forest fires; the trees are typically 60-100 years old with individual older trees. The sparse ground vegetation consists of lichens (73%), mosses (12%) and ericaceous shrubs (15%), the ground is normally covered by snow from October to mid-May, and the uppermost soil layers are frozen during the wintertime.
