Long term Experience in Autonomous Stations and production quality control

TL;DR

This paper reports on over a decade of experience with RPC detectors in large-area, dispersed stations for EAS experiments, demonstrating long-term stability and resilience in harsh outdoor conditions.

Contribution

It presents the development, testing, and deployment of RPC detectors in real outdoor environments, including long-term operational data and collaborative efforts to enhance their performance.

Findings

RPCs operated stably for over two years in harsh outdoor conditions.

More than 30 detectors produced, tested, and installed in various environments.

Collaborative efforts to improve RPC resilience and performance at BATATA site.

Abstract

Large area arrays composed by dispersed stations are of major importance in experiments where Extended Air Shower (EAS) sampling is necessary. In those dispersed stations is mandatory to have detectors that requires very low maintenance and shows good resilience to environmental conditions. In 2012 our group started to work in RPCs that could become acceptable candidates to operate within these conditions. Since that time, more than 30 complete detectors were produced, tested and installed in different places, both indoor and outdoor. The data and analysis to be presented is manly related to the tests made in the Auger site, where two RPCs are under test in real conditions for more than two years. The results confirm the capability to operate such kind of RPCs for long time periods under harsh conditions at a stable efficiency. In the last years Lip and USP - S\~ao Carlos start collaboration that aim to install an Eng. Array at BATATA (Auger) site to better study and improve the resilience and performance of the RPCs in outdoor experiments. The organization of such collaboration and the work done so far will be presented.