This measurement campaign was originally planned to evaluate the system performance under extremely harsh wind conditions.
The first lifting attempt took place at the North Crater, where sustained winds reached up to 50 km/h with gusts exceeding 90 km/h. The balloon was inflated on-site.The balloon managed to fly for about half an hour, and an attempt was made to move it toward the Bocca Nuova crater. The very strong winds caused the tethered balloon to lose altitude, and, given the presence of tourists in the area, it was intentionally burst for safety reasons. In the following days, operations were moved to Montagnola, on the southern flank of Mount Etna. As wind conditions remained comparable to those of the previous day, the team decided to directly deploy the sensors inside the Bocca Nuova crater by physically accessing the site, without lifting any sounding balloon.
Although challenging, this campaign proved valuable in assessing the operational limits of the system. Future developments will focus on testing new super-pressure balloons with drag-minimizing shapes, aiming to extend the system’s operational capabilities in even more demanding environmental conditions.