2.732 meters high and almost completely covered by ice, the Melbourne Volcano is a dormant stratovolcano: its last eruption occurred about 100 years ago and it is therefore considered an active volcano. Its summit is characterized by a 1 km wide crater covered with snow and ice and surrounded by numerous parasitic vents.

Lunitek supplied the equipment to the Catania INGV office for a month-long measurement and testing campaign in the Antarctic. The installation was carried out near the Melbourne volcano, using a battery pack appropriately sized for the duration of the tests.

The instrument firmware was configured in low-power mode, deactivating all processes not required for the application. In addition to being recorded in the instrument’s memory, data was acquired in real time using a narrowband radio link between the installation site and the base camp several kilometers away.