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Descrizione
The Italian geophysical test site PiTOP is part of ECCSEL, the distributed Research Infrastructure with the aim to enhance European science, technology development, innovation and education in the field of Carbon Dioxide Capture, Utilisation, Transport and Storage (CCUS). PiTOP offers five wells of different depths, is equipped with seismic and geoelectric instrumentation and allows to perform many types of geophysical/seismic experiments. This infrastructure has been strengthened thanks to the ITINERIS project, enhancing the services offered by the site, improving the operative capabilities and the provision of Transnational Accesses.
The site has been enhanced through the purchase of 800 wireless seismic nodes NuSeis (for a total of 1600 channels), mono and three-component, a borehole receiver Avalon GSR-1, a borehole Distributed Acoustic Sensing (DAS) cable, a Carina® (DAS) interrogator and a mobile laboratory/office (Ford Transit). This exceptional upgrade of instrumentation required personnel to its management and maintenance and the project paid 3 technologists and 3 technicians with a fixed-term contract. All purchased equipment has been tested and has already been used in many experiments and projects, including collaborations with SMINO.
The long-term sustainability of the improved infrastructure is a focal point that was considered at the beginning of the investment. PiTOP, thanks to the new instrumentation, hosted 3 Transnational Accesses (TA), in which the performance of different DAS fibre types and interrogators was evaluated. Following the TA, PiTOP has gained visibility, OGS has strengthened international collaborations and collected a big amount of data that will be shared on a FAIR basis with the scientific community. We have also improved the knowledge on DAS, and the outcomes will be published.
The main fields of application are CO2 and H2 storage site seismic characterization/monitoring and seismic studies on geothermal fields or water resources, to boost the way to a sustainable environment and to geoenergy.
