ETNA RADIO OBSERVATORY
(LSE) - Etneo Experimental Laboratory
Live data from PAOLO LANZA STATION
NICOLOSI (CT), Etna Park, Sicily
Maintained by ERO team
As part of the ERO Etna Radio Observatory project, there is a fully experimental activity using microcontroller technology, smart accelerometers, and projects created in schools or pioneered. The LSE or Etna Experimental Laboratory collects all these projects for educational use, within the Paolo Lanza station at Parsifal Park in Nicolosi. The station was built in 2022 and opened in 2023 through a collaboration between ERO, STMicroelectronics, INGV Osservatorio Etneo di Catania and Etna Park.
System 1: RAL10TS Microwave Radiometer
The Project stems from the idea of studying volcanic phenomena using microwave radiometry, already used in other research areas (weather forecasting, climate monitoring, radio astronomy, radio propagation). For Etna, a prototype microwave radiometer produced by RadioAstroLab s.r.l. is used, operating at the frequency of 11.2 GHz, connected to the external LNB unit, placed on the focus of a satellite dish for TV-SAT. The purpose of the project is to detect volcanic eruptions. by measuring, with a reasonable degree of reliability and repeatability, the increase in thermal emission due to hot eruptive spots occurring on the volcanic wall compared to the “at rest” scenario observed by the instrument. The analysis is supported by a simulation that models the measurement system using radiometer response curves measured in the laboratory. The remote monitoring system hypothesized for this project is passive in nature: using a microwave radiometer, the natural electromagnetic radiation of bodies (such as the ground and atmosphere) emitted as a result of temperature and energetic interactions between their constituent atoms and molecules is received.
The instrument observes the scenario, monitoring some significant parameters so as to understand how its state changes over time and as a function of environmental conditions. Thermal emission from the ground, for example, depends on the product of its physical temperature times emissivity, a parameter that describes the efficiency of the object to radiate, a function of the material's chemical and physical characteristics and the direction of observation. In the microwave band (between the millimeter and decimeter wavelengths), in contrast to the infrared, the most significant differences between radiometric measurements, are due to changes in the emissivity of the observed region, secondarily in temperature. A very important advantage of using a microwave radiometer for studying the environment is that, if well designed and constructed, it can operate automatically for long periods of time, in almost any atmospheric condition and independent of solar illumination, without requiring the presence of operators. The station is equipped with sensors for collecting environmental parameters, antenna vibrations and ground accelerations, built with MEMS technology by STMicroelectronics.
RAL10TS - credits: www.radioastrolab.it
RADIOMETRIC SIGNAL - credits: www.radioastrolab.it
System 2: 3-axis accelerometer and other sensors on prototype board
Seismometers are very sensitive instruments that measure the speed or displacement of the terrain and consist of a sensor (geophone), an acquirer and a transmitter that transfers the signal to a data acquisition and processing center, in our case a sound card and a PC.
Accelerometers, on the other hand, are instruments that measure ground acceleration and record movements only when the shock exceeds a certain magnitude threshold, also connected to a sound card and a PC.
ERO 3axis accelerometer with MMA7361L
credits: www.futuraelettronica.it
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Jamaseis software - credits: www.iris.edu
System 3: Science in school seismograph
Project made by Science in school, using a woofer speaker, a spring, a weight, a photographic tripod, a pair of crocodile clips, wires. A sensor ready to be used with a low noise amplifier and acquired from a sound card with the SpectrumLab program or sent directly to the sound card in the microphone or line-in connector to then process the audio file with Audacity. The calibration of the system takes place after an earthquake by comparing the wavefront with that received by professional observers such as INGV.
Required material
credits: www.scienceinschool.org
Detail of the realization, image taken from Panteleimon Bazanos
credits: www.scienceinschool.org
Complete geophone, image taken from Panteleimon Bazanos
credits: www.scienceinschool.org
Spectrogram example with SpectrumLab
credits: www.etna-ero.it
System 4: Wi-Fi color weather station with professional 5 in 1 sensor
The professional quality external sensor reliably transmits the measured values of wind speed, wind direction, air humidity, temperature and amount of rainfall to the base station on the frequency of 868 MHz. On the 5.7 '' color display of the base station, clearly structured, not only these values are displayed but also a lot of data recorded in the previous days. This visualization is made possible by the internal saving and evaluation of the data collected for a period of 24 hours. From the data collected, the weather station draws up a very reliable forecast of the local weather trend for the next 12 hours, which is then shown on the display by means of graphic symbols. The Wi-Fi function allows you to share local data via apps such as. '' Weather Underground '' or '' Weather Cloud ''. In addition, the Wi-Fi function allows you to synchronize the time of the device with the Internet and to update the firmware.
ERO Wi-Fi color weather station - credits: www.bresser.de
System 5: Lightning detector
A lightning detector is a sensor capable of detecting lightning at the moment of lightning, therefore long before the thunder, which often comes several seconds later. If we consider the speed of light, bearing in mind that it is an electromagnetic wave, with its 300,000 km / s (> 1 billion km / h), and that of sound, which propagates in the air (at 20 ° C) at 1237 km / h, we can easily deduce that, when we see the lightning, the discharge of the lightning occurred only a few microseconds before, while the thunder comes with a delay related to the distance of the lightning. So, to estimate the distance of the lightning bolt, just count the seconds that elapse between the lightning and the thunder, and divide them by 3 (which are the seconds it takes sound to travel 1km as the crow flies). So, if 9 seconds elapse, the lightning bolt is about 3km away. Therefore, a lightning detector can be very useful to prepare in time for the approach of a storm, in order to be able to take the appropriate precautions. In practice, a lightning detector is a very sensitive static electricity detector. If we build it with an antenna made up of a piece of wire, it is already able to detect incoming storms within a radius of a few kilometers, but there are sensors that detect lightning and also determine its distance. If, on the other hand, we use a coil, we are able to receive the magnetic component of the initial discharge.
Lighting bolt - credits: www.rosariocatania.it
ERO Lightning detector
credits: www.etna-ero.it / www.elektrsoft.it
ERO Lightning web graphic
credits: www.etna-ero.it / www.elektrsoft.it
ERO Lightning detector box
credits: www.etna-ero.it / www.elektrsoft.it
System 6: LEGO seismometer educational
The ‘Build your own seismometer’ was designed in collaboration with the British Geological Survey’s school seismology project www.bgs.ac.uk/ssp . The simple design converts vertical ground vibrations into voltages and works in the frequency range 1-2Hz up to 25 Hz, when combined with the mindsets digitiser and the free educational datalogging software jamaseis https://www.iris.edu/hq/inclass/software-web-app/jamaseis the system allows schools and home users to set up their own seismic monitoring station http://www.bgs.ac.uk/discoveringGeology/hazards/earthquakes/locatingQuakes.html
Since the sensor responds to relatively high frequency signals (for seismology) it works best as a tool for sensing vibrations from local sources. The initial design was used in Leicester as part of the Leicester City football quake project where vardyquakes are detected up to a couple of km from the football stadium every time Leicester score a home goal. http://www.bgs.ac.uk/discoveringGeology/hazards/earthquakes/FootballQuake/home.html
ERO LEGO seismometer educational
credits: www.etna-ero.it
ERO LEGO seismometer educational
credits: www.etna-ero.it
System 7: GEOPHONE
Geophone Multistrip hourly representation, useful for local seismic and vulcanic events correlation.
Scroll time 4.6 sec, updated every hour.
ERO an example of a spectrogram , source GEOPHONE multi strips
credits: www.etna-ero.it
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ERO GEOPHONE educational
credits: www.etna-ero.it
System 8: MEMS
This system involves the use of semiconductor devices produced by STMicroelectronics.Thanks to a research project conducted by ERO in collaboration with INGV-OE Catania Osservatorio Etneo of Catania and STMicroelectronics, it is possible to field test the board produced by ST, known as SensorTile.box (STEVAL-MKSBOX1V1). It is a board made by ST equipped with digital sensors, such as gyroscope, accelerometer, temperature, humidity, pressure, environmental microphones. The board is driven by the ST BLE Sensor application and programmed as needed. In our case a special firmware has been developed by ST engineers for geophysical applications. When a vibration occurs, the application records on the internal microSD card or provides in output a serial datalog with the data coming from the sensors complete with date and time.
SENSORTILE.BOX
credits: www.st.com
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System 9: IOT NODE BLE
IoT node with BLE connectivity, environmental and motion sensors, and motion middleware libraries
For STM32 Nucleo expansion boards, complete middleware to build apps using: − temperature/humidity sensor (HTS221) − temperature/pressure sensors (LPS25HB/LPS22HB) − motion sensors (LIS3MDL/LSM303AGR and LSM6DS0/LSM6DSL) − compatible with the motion sensor LSM6DS3 DIL24 expansion • For the STEVAL-STLKT01V1: − temperature and pressure sensor (LPS22HB) − motion sensors (LSM303AGR and LSM6DSM) − Gas Gauge (STC3115) • Very low power BLE (BlueNRG) singlemode network processor for transmitting information to one client. • osxMotionFX real-time motion sensor data fusion (OPEN.MEMS license) to combine the output from multiple MEMS sensors. • Accelerometer-only real-time recognition algorithms: − osxMotionARactivity − osxMotionCP carry position − osxMotionGR gesture − osxMotionPM pedometer − osxMotionID motion intensity
• Free, user-friendly license terms • BlueMS compatible application for Android/iOS (version 2.0.0 or above) for visualizing information sent via Bluetooth. • OTA firmware update (for X-NUCLEOIDB05A1 Bluetooth board only) using the BlueMS application (Ver. 3.0.0 or higher) • Option to request and enable the OPEN.MEMS license using the BlueMS application (Ver. 3.0.0 and above) • Gas Gauge STEVAL-STLKT01V1 visible using BlueMS application (Ver. 3.2.0 and above) • Separate sample implementations for XNUCLEO-IKS01A2 (or X-NUCLEOIKS01A1) and X-NUCLEO-IDB05A1 (or XNUCLEO-IDB04A1) boards on a NUCLEOF401RE or NUCLEO-L476RG board
Bluemicrosystem1 - credits: ERO
Nucleo F401-RE
credits: www.st.com
Bluemicrosystem1 - credits: ERO
X-Nucleo IKS01A1
credits: www.st.com
X-Nucleo IDB04A1
credits: www.st.com