Airborne remote sensing systems are increasingly used in engineering geology and geomorphology for studying and monitoring natural hazardous scenarios and events. In this study, we used two remote sensing monitoring techniques, i.e., light detection and ranging (LiDAR) and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) to analyze the kinematic evolution of the Montescaglioso landslide (Basilicata, Southern Italy), a large rain-triggered landslide that occurred in December 2013. By comparing pre- and post-event LiDAR and UAV DEMs and UAV orthomosaics, we delineated landslide morphological features and measured horizontal displacements and elevation change differences within landslide body. Analysis of two subsequent post-events digital terrain models (DTMs) also allowed the evaluation of the evolutionary behavior of the slope instability, highlighting no signs of reactivation. The UAV-derived digital surface models (DSMs) were found consistent with the LiDAR-DTMs, but their use was in addition highlighted as highly effective to support geomorphic interpretations and complement LiDAR and field-based data acquisitions. This study shows the effectiveness of combining the two UAV-LiDAR methodologies to evaluate geomorphological features indicative of the failure mechanism and to interpret the evolutionary behavior of the instability process
The SPectral IMager (SPIM) facility is a laboratory visible infrared spectrometer developed to support space borne observations of rocky bodies of the solar system. Currently, this laboratory setup is used to support the DAWN mission, which is in its journey towards the asteroid 1-Ceres, and to support the 2018 Exo-Mars mission in the spectral investigation of the Martian subsurface. The main part of this setup is an imaging spectrometer that is a spare of the DAWN visible infrared spectrometer. The spectrometer has been assembled and calibrated at Selex ES and then installed in the facility developed at the INAF-IAPS laboratory in Rome. The goal of SPIM is to collect data to build spectral libraries for the interpretation of the space borne and in situ hyperspectral measurements of planetary materials. Given its very high spatial resolution combined with the imaging capability, this instrument can also help in the detailed study of minerals and rocks. In this paper, the instrument setup is first described, and then a series of test measurements, aimed to the characterization of the main subsystems, are reported. In particular, laboratory tests have been performed concerning (i) the radiation sources, (ii) the reference targets, and (iii) linearity of detector response; the instrumental imaging artifacts have also been investigated.
An innovative approach of double pulse laser‐induced breakdown spectroscopy (DP‐LIBS) coupled with optical microscopy was applied to the characterisation and quantitative analysis of the Agoudal iron meteorite in bulk sample and in petrographic thin section. Qualitative analysis identified the elements Ca, Co, Fe, Ga, Li and Ni in the thin section and the whole meteorite. Two different methods, calibration‐free LIBS and one‐point calibration LIBS, were used as complementary methodologies for quantitative LIBS analysis. The elemental composition data obtained by LIBS were in good agreement with the compositional analyses obtained by traditional methods generally applied for the analysis of meteorites, such as ICP‐MS and EDS‐SEM. Besides the recognised advantages of LIBS over traditional techniques, including versatility, minimal destructivity, lack of waste production, low operating costs, rapidity of analysis, availability of transportable or portable systems, etc., additional advantages of this technique in the analysis of meteorites are precision and accuracy, sensitivity to low atomic number elements such as Li and the capacity to detect and quantify Co contents that cannot be obtained by EDS‐SEM.
Meteorites are rocks that once were part of planets or large asteroids, and usually contain a great amount of extra‐terrestrial iron. Nowadays, the meteorite business is booming and the demand is increasing all over the world, whereas supply (originating especially from Morocco and Algeria) is limited. Thus, specimens presented as meteorites often turn out to be common Earth rocks or old smelter and castoff iron dubbed as a ‘meteor‐wrong’. In the present study, a compact handheld instrument based on fast‐response multi‐elemental analysis technique, i.e., laser induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS), has been used to identify specific major elements (Ni and Co) and trace elements (Ga and Ir), in order to discriminate a certified iron meteorite with respect to a suspected meteorite fragment and a pig iron product. Furthermore, a calibration freeLIBS method has been used to quantify the main elements Fe, Ni and Co in the iron meteorite and Fe, Mn, Si and Ti in the other two fragments.
A handheld laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) instrument associated to a fuzzy logic-based method is proposed as a novel tool that is able to provide information on the nature of meteorites and discriminate among iron, stone, stony-iron meteorites and meteorwrongs.
The SPectral Imager (SPIM) facility is a laboratory VIS-IR spectrometer developed to support spaceborne observations of rocky bodies of the solar system. Currently, this laboratory setup is used to support the Dawn NASA mission and to support the 2018 ExoMars mission in the spectral investigation of Martian subsurface. Specifically, for this mission, a selection of relevant Mars analogue materials has been characterized and stored in the International Space Analogue Rockstore (ISAR), hosted in Orléans, France. In this investigation, two volcanic rock samples from the ISAR collection were analyzed. These two samples were chosen because of their similarity in mineralogical composition and age with Martian basalts and volcanic sands. Moreover, volcanic sands are particularly interesting because they can contain fossils of primitive life forms. The analysis of data collected by SPIM resulted in good agreement with the mineralogical phases detected in these two samples by mineralogical and petrographical techniques, demonstrating the effectiveness of the high spatial and spectral resolution of SPIM for identifying and for mapping different mineralogical species on cut rock and mineral samples.
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