A new detector for muography applied to glaciers monitoring

Abstract

We present the design of a muon tomographer intended for the monitoring of glacier thickness. The process of glacier melting is not completely understood and is considered a hot topic in view of global warming. Muon Tomography is a widely used technique employed to perform imaging of the inner structure of large objects, such as volcanoes, architectural structures, and sealed containers. This technique takes advantage of the muon flux reaching the Earth surface (∼70m−2s−1sr−1). In the case of glaciers, thanks to the different density of ice and rock, a directional flux measurement provides information on the bedrock-ice interface depth. The goal of our project is to design a detector able to measure the glacier thickness with short exposure time, and with real time data taking and processing; to perform studies of the seasonal behavior, and the glacier melting trend through the years, the detector should have good spatial resolution and have high efficiency. The detector should be operable in open-sky and cheap enough to allow for the production and use of arrays of detectors. The foreseen design of the detector is based on scintillation fibers organized in layers, and read by silicon photomultipliers driven by FERS boards (A5202), developed by CAEN s.p.a., which act as power supply and readout devices. To put on solid ground the developed design, a prototype of the detector, created in collaboration with the University of Glasgow, has been constructed. Data gathered from test runs have been utilized to validate the simulation codes employed. In this contribution, we will show the results of a set of simulations aimed to optimize the detector design and the foreseen performances of the designed detector. In addition, the preliminary results of the characterization and tests on the prototype will be presented, compared with the corresponding simulations.