On the occasion of the anniversary, a double event at the Monte Cimone Centre. In the morning, a blessing of the Air Force chapel at the summit of the Mountain, and in the afternoon, celebrations for the over-eighty Cesare Magera. In the morning, at the summit of the Mountain, the Director of the CAMM, Major Attilio Di Diodato, after welcoming the authorities present, including the mayor of Sestola Marco Bonucchi, the President of the Frignano Park Moreno Guerrieri, representatives of other municipalities in the Park and of the various police forces, the President of the Sestola Alpini association, the Air Force Associations of Modena and Carpi, and Lieutenant Colonel Sergio Pisani of the National Centre for Meteorology and Climatology of Aeronautics (CNMCA) of Pratica di Mare (Rome), read out the order of the day with the message from the Chief of Staff of the Air Force to the personnel. Subsequently, the blessing of the Air Force chapel and the Madonna at the summit of the Mountain was celebrated by the military chaplain, Father Pierino Sacella, following recent renovation and restoration work. The event took place under a heavy snowfall that made its unfolding all the more evocative.
In the afternoon, the event moved to Sestola, at the CAMM logistics base. A public event was held to honour Cesare Magera, a figure much loved by the community and all the Centre’s staff, given his long-standing collaboration with the Air Force dating back to 1951, when work began on the construction of the tunnels inside the mountain.The Centre’s Director first drew attention to the 88th anniversary of the Armed Forces by screening a very evocative film about the Air Force, which highlighted the presence of the Italian tricolour in commemoration of the 150th anniversary of the Unification ofItaly. The Director then spoke about the recent international recognition that the Monte Cimone observation station has received from the World Meteorological Organisation. This recognition was achieved thanks to the work of many people who have served over the years at the summit of Monte Cimone, including Magera, who has played an active role in the Centre’s operational area for 60 years. To mark the occasion, a film about ’Cesarino‘ entitled ‘The Man and the Mountain’ was produced in collaboration with the ‘E’scamàdul’ cultural association of Sestola.Among the guests present at the award ceremony were Dr Paolo Bonasoni, head of the ‘Ottavio Vittori’ laboratory of the National Research Council, housed in the AM premises at the summit of Mount Cimone, as well as the wife and son of Colonel Vittori, former Director of the Centre from 1952 to 1962 and subsequently director of the then FISBAT unit of the CNR in Bologna, dedicated to the study of physical and chemical phenomena in the atmosphere. The CAMM, headed by Major Attilio Di Diodato and reporting to the CNMCA, has been operating at an altitude of 2,165 metres for almost a century in the fields of telecommunications and meteorological and environmental measurements. The long historical series of data collected helps to deepen our understanding of climate change in an area far removed from local pollution. The measurement of carbon dioxide concentrations, which began in 1979, constitutes the longest time series in Europe with continuous sampling.
