Development of stroboscopic muography

Conventional muon radiography has concentrated on non-destructive studies of stationary objects with relatively long exposure times required to achieve sufficient muon statistics. A muon detection system with real time readings and a high spatial resolution detector, enables the investigation of dynamic processes in a stroboscopic mode, where image frames are synchronized with the phases of the dynamic target. Although the natural cosmic-ray muon flux is quite low for imaging a rapid process, repetitive processes can still be studied with high time resolution by integrating a large number of frames synchronized to the process. In this paper we demonstrate the stroboscopic imaging capabilities of cosmic-ray muon radiography with scintillation counters and the muon readout module. The dynamics of a chemical and melting process in an electric furnace with a size of 30 m water equivalent in diameter was investigated as an example, and stroboscopic images were obtained for hourly changes, with acquisition frames of 400 h each. The results of these experiments demonstrate the future potential for muon radiography of repetional process, such as magma flow in a conduit.