RPC application in muography and specific developments

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates the application of RPC-based muography to image a volcano, showing successful in-situ operation and ongoing improvements in detector efficiency and resolution.

Contribution

It presents a novel application of RPC detectors in muography for volcanic imaging, including practical deployment and performance assessment.

Findings

RPC detector operated successfully in-situ for volcano imaging

Achieved good detection performance over three years

Ongoing improvements in gas, power, and resolution

Abstract

Muography is an imaging technique for large and dense structures as volcanoes or nuclear reactors using atmospheric muons. We applied this technique to the observation of the Puy de D\^ome, a volcano 2 km wide close to Clermont-Ferrand, France. The detection is performed with a 1m$\times$1m$\times$1.80m telescope made of 4 layers of single gap glass-RPCs operated in avalanche mode. The 1 cm$^2$ pad readout uses the Hardroc2 ASICs. The three data taking campaigns over the last three years showed that a RPC detector can be operated in-situ with good performances. Further developments to decrease the gas and power consumption and to improve the position and timing resolution of the detector are ongoing.