Three days of fieldwork have passed since my last post, and what a mixed few days it has been. Sunday morning we got up to our previous measurement location on the flanks and the photo on the right was our view...not ideal measurement conditions for measuring a plume...especially if you can't see it! When faced with conditions like this in the field there are two options; either stick it out and see if conditions clear up or give up and clamber back down the mountain. This is the inspiration for my mildly creative blog title, it being the third post in my fieldwork series, as so far everything has gone well. That being said, we waited for three hours in the cold, wet and windy conditions till eventually the clouds cleared and we had a perfect(ish) view of the summit. Patience paid off!

Rarely, rarely, rarely in a campaign do you get excellent data on the very first day you set out to make measurements. Today was one of those days. We set out with a goal to compare two different Ultra Violet (UV) camera systems, and on the first day it appears we have got the data to do this successfully. Although it is always good to gather more just to be sure!

We were up early in the morning at 6 am to drive to Piano Provenzana for a short 30 minute walk to a good vantage point of the North East Crater (NEC) of Etna. See picture on the right. A familiar crater which has featured on my blog before and has provided a location for some previously published work. The NEC is often chosen as a location for UV work due to the high amounts of Sulphur Dioxide it emits daily. In the summer it is also easily accessible has much more reliable weather than other nearby sources such as Stromboli. There is also the added benefit of good food, wine, and sun.

Below are a selection of pictures which I took during the day and my attempt at imaging some clouds over the summit of Etna last night. Unfortunately tomorrow it looks like a rainy and cloudy day on the summit, so it looks like it may be a day of data processing instead. 

It has been two years since my last visit to Sicily, and that is definitely too many. This year is a little bit different. It is the first time I head off to do research not directly related to my own PhD with the specific purpose of helping a first year PhD student (Tom Wilkes) with an exciting new gas remote sensing project. 

A late flight in to Palermo meant a stay at a B&B in nearby Terrasini. I must admit that I had no idea what this area was like at all, so a bit of a gamble. But the gamble paid off, that is, once we had navigated all the many one way systems which were incorrectly labelled on Google Maps. A short walk from our B&B and there is a square filled with different options for food and drink. A late dinner and then back to the B&B ready for the morning journey to Palermo to pick up equipment for the journey to Linguaglossa.