Integration between space- and ground-based observations in areas prone to volcanic hazard: the experience of Mt. Etna Supersite

The Geohazard Supersites and Natural Laboratories (GSNL) is an initiative of the Group of Earth Observation (GEO) that has started in 2007 with the Frascati declaration, in which the GeoHazards Community of Practice recommended to: “... stimulate international and intergovernmental effort to monitor and study selected reference (geologic hazards) sites, by establishing open access to relevant datasets according to GEO principles, to foster collaboration between various partners and end users”. Since the beginning the main idea has been the improvement of the hazard assessment by combining space- and ground-based datasets provided by the Space Agencies and the research institutions managing the in-situ observation systems, respectively.

According to the definition of Supersite, since the early stage of the GSLN initiative, Mt. Etna has been identified as one of the Supersites due to its almost continuous eruptive activity, the great amount of satellite and in-situ data available, and the advanced in-situ multi-parametric observing systems. Officially, Mt. Etna is a Permanent Supersite since 2014. The Space Agencies provide quotas of SAR and high-spatial resolution optical multispectral satellite data and INGV offers geophysical, geochemical, and volcanological data. The data are accessible via an open access platform implemented in the framework of the EC FP7 MED-SUV project, and is going to be integrated in the EPOS research infrastructure.

During the past few decades, Mt. Etna has erupted almost every year offering the optimal conditions to apply the Supersite concept; thus here we report some relevant examples of the integrated use of the space-and ground-based data applied to Mt. Etna’s eruptions, highlighting how such complementarity improved the monitoring of the eruptive events and the assessment of the associated hazards.