Cubesat mission “vulcain” to monitor volcanoes thermal activity and gas emissions

Monitor changes in volcanic activity is crucial to understand signs of an impending eruption. Satellite data provide a very effective tool to study active volcanoes remotely and to understand their evolution by analyzing different parameters in spatial and temporal dimensions. During the last two decades’ large progress has been done in volcanic remote sensing to measure temperatures and gas emissions, further developments are expected over the next decade considering the new planned space missions: ESA-LSTM, NASA/ASI-SBG, CNES/ISRO TRISHNA and other mission studies that include thermal infrared sensors. This work aims to present the development of a satellite mission study: “Vulcain” which regards a new CubeSat mission for Earth Observation dedicated to study volcanoes. The project is supervised by the European Space Agency (ESA) and coordinated by the Polytechnic of Milan with the support of five Italian partners (INGV, Leonardo Spa, Flysight srl, Leaf Space srl, Technology for Propulsion and Innovation srl).The project involves the construction of two 12U nanosatellites flying in formation. Each satellite is equipped with 2 instruments an RGB camera and a multispectral thermal camera with four channels in the 8-12 µm spectral range. The main scientific objectives are focus on measure, on a selected number of worldwide active volcanoes, the surface temperatures, sulfur dioxide emissions, to combine VIS-TIR data to enhance the spatial resolution and adding morphological analysis using the stereoscopic capability of the two nanosatellites.