Density tomography using cosmic ray muons: feasibility domain and field applications
Abstract
Muons are continuously produced when the protons forming the primary cosmic rays decay during their interactions with the molecules of the upper atmosphere. Both their short cross-section and their long life-time make the muons able to cross hectometers and even kilometers of rock before disintegrating. The flux of muons crossing a geological volume strongly depends on the quantity of matter encountered along their trajectories and, depending on both its size and its density, the geological object appears more or less opaque to muons. By measuring the muon flux emerging from the studied object and correcting for its geometry, the density structure can be deduced. The primary information obtained is the density averaged along muons trajectories and, to recover the 3D density distribution. The detector has to be moved around the target to acquire multi-angle images of the density structure. The inverse problem to be solved shares common features with seismic travel-time tomography and X-ray medical scans, but it also has specificities like Poissonian statistics, low signal-to-noise ratio and scattering which are discussed.
Muon telescopes have been designed to sustain installations in harsh conditions such as might be encountered on volcanoes. Data acquired in open sky at various latitude and altitude allow to adjust the incoming muon flux model and to observe its temporal variations. The muon interactions with matter and the underground flux are constrained with data sets acquired inside the underground laboratory of the Mont Terri. The data analysis and the telescope model development are detailed. A model of the muon flux across a volcano is confronted to first measurements on La Soufrière de Guadeloupe volcano. The model takes into account a priori informations and solving kernels are computed to deduce the spatial resolution in order to define the elements size of the model heterogeneities. The spatio-temporal resolution of the method is in relation with the geometry and the installation time of the detector, it is evaluated to get the detectable density variations. The impact of additional telescopes around the volcano on the data quality is estimated to determine the best future locations of installations.- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2010
- Bibcode:
- 2010AGUFM.V41C2295L
- Keywords:
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- 0545 COMPUTATIONAL GEOPHYSICS / Modeling;
- 0994 EXPLORATION GEOPHYSICS / Instruments and techniques;
- 3260 MATHEMATICAL GEOPHYSICS / Inverse theory;
- 8419 VOLCANOLOGY / Volcano monitoring