This paper reports on the expedition to the Cumbre Vieja volcano (Canary Islands, Spain) in November 2021 to
assess stand-off laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy for real-time measurements of the lava streams from a
safe point. The paper provides insight on the analytical approach to the problem, the rationale of the instrument
design and construction carried out in three weeks, the experience with the new-born instrument at the volcano
and the preliminary results. Despite the subtle spectral differences among the samples and the signal variability
induced by the strong wind gusts at site, a statistical approach to data processing such as PCA, made possible to
extract sufficient information and provide a robust classification tool.
