From Tunnel Overburden Reconstruction to Tidal Measurements via atmospheric muon
Abstract
Muography with scintillator-based detectors enables the investigation of density distributions within large structures. The Hankuk Atmospheric-muon Wide Landscaping (HAWL) project is the first real-time portable muon tomography. It successfully charted the mountainous region of eastern Korea by measuring cosmic-ray muons with a detector operated in a moving vehicle. HAWL achieved a tunnel length accuracy of 6.0 % and an overburden measurement range of 8-400 meter-water-equivalent (m.w.e.). The HAWL upgrade (HAWLU) features a more compact design and enables trajectory reconstruction. Using this upgraded system, we measured tidal water-level variations with meter-scale precision over 31.6 days in the Boryeong Undersea Tunnel. The measured muon rate decreased by 1.72 ± 0.04 % per meter of increasing tidal level, while the reconstruction of undersea tunnel scan independently validated the detector performance. These results demonstrate the capabilities of dynamic muography in two approaches, one with a portable detector in motion and the other with a detector measuring a target that changes over time.
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BibTeX
@misc{seo2026from,
title = {{From Tunnel Overburden Reconstruction to Tidal Measurements via atmospheric muon}},
author = {Jiwon Seo and Jongseok Chung and Chang Hyon Ha and TongZhou Huang and Jinyoung Kim and Sooa Kim and Hani Kimku and Byoung-cheol Koh and Minsu Kwak and Sihyun Lee and Yujin Lee},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2610.11368},
eprint = {2610.11368},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.11368},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - From Tunnel Overburden Reconstruction to Tidal Measurements via atmospheric muon
AU - Jiwon Seo
AU - Jongseok Chung
AU - Chang Hyon Ha
AU - TongZhou Huang
AU - Jinyoung Kim
AU - Sooa Kim
AU - Hani Kimku
AU - Byoung-cheol Koh
AU - Minsu Kwak
AU - Sihyun Lee
AU - Yujin Lee
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/08
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2610.11368
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.11368
AB - Muography with scintillator-based detectors enables the investigation of density distributions within large structures. The Hankuk Atmospheric-muon Wide Landscaping (HAWL) project is the first real-time portable muon tomography. It successfully charted the mountainous region of eastern Korea by measuring cosmic-ray muons with a detector operated in a moving vehicle. HAWL achieved a tunnel length accuracy of 6.0 % and an overburden measurement range of 8-400 meter-water-equivalent (m.w.e.). The HAWL upgrade (HAWLU) features a more compact design and enables trajectory reconstruction. Using this upgraded system, we measured tidal water-level variations with meter-scale precision over 31.6 days in the Boryeong Undersea Tunnel. The measured muon rate decreased by 1.72 ± 0.04 % per meter of increasing tidal level, while the reconstruction of undersea tunnel scan independently validated the detector performance. These results demonstrate the capabilities of dynamic muography in two approaches, one with a portable detector in motion and the other with a detector measuring a target that changes over time.
ER -