Geoscientific Instrumentation, Methods and Data Systems
Geoscientific Instrumentation,
Methods and Data Systems
Geoscientific Instrumentation,
Methods and Data Systems
Articles | Volume 2, issue 1
Articles | Volume 2, issue 1
Geosci. Instrum. Method. Data Syst., 2, 11–15, 2013
https://doi.org/10.5194/gi-2-11-2013
© Author(s) 2013. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

Special issue: High energy geophysics: muon and neutrino radiography

Geosci. Instrum. Method. Data Syst., 2, 11–15, 2013
https://doi.org/10.5194/gi-2-11-2013
© Author(s) 2013. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
Articles | Volume 2, issue 1

  11 Jan 2013

11 Jan 2013

Air shower simulation for background estimation in muon tomography of volcanoes

S. Béné1, P. Boivin2,3,4, E. Busato1, C. Cârloganu1, C. Combaret5, P. Dupieux1, F. Fehr1, P. Gay1, P. Labazuy2,3,4, I. Laktineh5, J.-F. Lénat2,3,4, D. Miallier1, L. Mirabito5, V. Niess1, A. Portal2,3,4, and B. Vulpescu1 S. Béné et al.
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  • 1Clermont Université, Université Blaise Pascal, CNRS/IN2P3, Laboratoire de Physique Corpusculaire, BP 10448, 63000 Clermont-Ferrand, France
  • 2Clermont Université, Université Blaise Pascal, Observatoire de Physique du Globe de Clermont-Ferrand, Laboratoire Magmas et Volcans, BP 10118, 63000 Clermont-Ferrand, France
  • 3CNRS, UMR 6524, LMV, 63038 Clermont-Ferrand, France
  • 4IRD, R 163, LMV, 63038 Clermont-Ferrand, France
  • 5Université de Lyon, Université Lyon 1, CNRS/IN2P3, IPNL, 1 Rue E. Fermi, 69622 Villeurbanne Cedex, France
Received: 17 Jul 2012 – Discussion started: 06 Aug 2012 – Revised: 13 Dec 2012 – Accepted: 17 Dec 2012 – Published: 11 Jan 2013

Abstract. One of the main sources of background for the radiography of volcanoes using atmospheric muons comes from the accidental coincidences produced in the muon telescopes by charged particles belonging to the air shower generated by the primary cosmic ray. In order to quantify this background effect, Monte Carlo simulations of the showers and of the detector are developed by the TOMUVOL collaboration. As a first step, the atmospheric showers were simulated and investigated using two Monte Carlo packages, CORSIKA and GEANT4. We compared the results provided by the two programs for the muonic component of vertical proton-induced showers at three energies: 1, 10 and 100 TeV. We found that the spatial distribution and energy spectrum of the muons were in good agreement for the two codes.

How to cite. Béné, S., Boivin, P., Busato, E., Cârloganu, C., Combaret, C., Dupieux, P., Fehr, F., Gay, P., Labazuy, P., Laktineh, I., Lénat, J.-F., Miallier, D., Mirabito, L., Niess, V., Portal, A., and Vulpescu, B.: Air shower simulation for background estimation in muon tomography of volcanoes, Geosci. Instrum. Method. Data Syst., 2, 11–15, https://doi.org/10.5194/gi-2-11-2013, 2013.