TIRLab

Acquisition technology of TIRNet surveillance network

The first station of TIRNet network was installed on June 2004 at Vesuvius crater and after this date several technological improvements were applied to the network stations. All station are equipped with FLIR SC645/655 infrared cameras at present time. These cameras acquire IR frames at 640x480 resolution in the 7.5-13 μm thermal infrared bandwidth. Sensor accuracy is ± 2°C and thermal sensibility is 30 mK (at 50/60 Hz).

The thermal infrared Remote Monitoring Station (RMS) performs daily automated acquisition of IR images and their upload to a server of the INGV-Osservatorio Vesuviano Surveillance Center in Naples (Italy). The RMS was designed and developed by the Thermal Infrared Laboratory of the Osservatorio Vesuviano and both hardware and software are constantly technologically upgraded.
Detailed description of the hardware schematics of latest RMS is in Sansivero et al., 2025.

In the figure are illustrated the main components of the IR RMS:

• 1) Raspberry Pi based core system with power supply units, relays to switch on/off sensors and  over-voltage protections
  
• 2) ethernet switch
• 3) solar charge controller
• 4) LTE/WiFi router to data transmission
• 5) Battery

A FLIR IR camera, protected by a stainless steel case with Germanium window, and an air Temperature and Humidity probe are connected to the IR RMS. The probe is necessary to perform real-time correction of the IR frames acquired by the FLIR camera.
Whole system is controlled by the Python ICARO (Infrared Camera Automation for Remote Observations) control software (download code: Icaro_v.4.5.zip).
ICARO main functionalities:

• a) acquisition of TIR images, stored in the processing unit’s memory;
• b) acquisition of air temperature and humidity values a few seconds before each TIR image is taken, as well as on an hourly basis;
• c) connection to a server for data upload;
• d) on-demand acquisition of TIR images and air temperature and humidity values;
• e) remote connectivity by LTE/UMTS router or Wi-Fi.

Basically, at scheduled times defined in custom settings, the ICARO software control module activates the TIR camera, LTE/UMTS or Wi-Fi connection, and the air temperature/humidity probe to perform the requested tasks. Once the tasks are completed, ICARO powers down the unused components to save battery energy.
ICARO also includes a basic web server with PHP functionality. If RMS is connected to a network, users can access the station’s web interface to control real-time TIR image acquisition and air temperature/humidity monitoring, and to upload this data to the server.

---

A comprehensive description of ICARO functionalities and RMS hardware schematics is provided in Sansivero et al., 2025.