Description
Cosmic-ray muons are produced in the atmosphere, and their flux at ground level depends on atmospheric conditions such as temperature and pressure. This makes ground-level muon measurements a potential source of information about the state of the atmosphere, presenting a unique opportunity for improvements to weather forecasting.
Simulation work by collaborators William Luszczak and Joseph Chan at Ohio State University has shown that ground-level muon flux measurements can be used as an additional input to standard weather models, leading to reductions in forecast error over a large effective atmospheric volume. At the FM Lab in the School of Physics at the University of Sydney, we are constructing a low-cost, remotely operable muon detector based on plastic scintillators and silicon photomultipliers to collect data that can be incorporated into existing weather models.
Networks of such detectors could first be deployed across Sydney, then across Australia, and eventually anywhere in the world. They would provide a new atmospheric data stream, improving weather forecast accuracy, particularly in rural and remote regions where conventional atmospheric measurements are sparse.
This use of muon detectors would give particle physics the pleasure of directly improving everyday life.
| I am the presenting author | Yes |
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