Left the inside of the SKATE suitcase (photo credit: F. Pennacchia).
Right backpacked SKATE (photo credit: C. Biensan).
Skateboarding adds extra gear. In everyone's imagination, skateboarders swiftly glide past obstacles that slow down pedestrians and cars in the chaos of the city. As part of the departmental UNO project, a group of colleagues conceived and commissioned the creation of their SKATE to overcome significant technological obstacles, climb volcanoes more easily, and collect a large amount of data about explosive eruptions at Stromboli, Etna, and other explosive volcanoes worldwide. SKATE stands for Setup for Kinematic Acquisition of Explosive Eruptions, and represents a brilliant, high-tech setup capable of continuously and synchronously acquiring three different signals associated with explosive eruptions: high-speed visible video, high-speed thermal infrared video, and acoustic signal. All sensors are housed in a small suitcase that can be backpacked (typically on impervious trails) to the chosen location for the acquisition. Once installed, the device has significant autonomy thanks to solar panels that charge the batteries during the day and 2TB of memory. Thanks to integrated electronics, the system can activate autonomously and record signals without the need for human intervention, allowing personnel to avoid long exposure to volcanic threats. SKATE was first used at Stromboli during the UNO field campaign in May 2022, and was then used again at Stromboli in October 2022 and May 2023. More recently, software improvements were made to speed up data processing, and camera optics were enhanced to improve image quality. Excellent work, SKATEBOARDERS!