Il RoX is a continuous monitoring system of the optical properties of natural surfaces. Arpa Veneto, with the collaboration of the CNR - Institute of Polar Sciences and Institute on Atmospheric Pollution, installed it in Falcade on the Belluno Dolomites with the aim of integrating observations based on satellites managed by national and international space agencies.
The first activities in which it will be applied concern him study of the snow carried by the wind in areas prone to avalanche risk, also resulting from the Vaia storm. The integration between ground and space measurements will support land monitoring and help define the impacts of calamitous events, especially their evolution over time.
The information that will be obtained from the study of snow carried by the wind will be of fundamental interest to develop observational methodologies of other phenomena. One of these is theexpansion of the bark beetle population printer in technical jargon Ips typographus on the Venetian mountains, an insect that feeds mainly on wood, the expansion of which may also have significant impacts on the effectiveness of the protective woods.
The availability of this measuring range will be further important as calibration site of the instrumentation developed by the team as part of the activities of the National Research Program in Antarctica, in which Arpa Veneto also participates.
The installation of the RoX was possible thanks to the collaboration, which began in 2018, between Arpa Veneto and the National Research Council and to the funding linked to the interventions of the Commissioner delegated to the Vaia emergency.