Defining the sensitivity of cosmic ray muons to groundwater storage changes
Quantifying groundwater storage variations is key for sustainable water resource management, estimating droughts and climate change impacts, and the environmental protection of the Critical Zone. Despite the many geophysical methods traditionally used to indirectly infer groundwater storage, there i...
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Académie des sciences
2024-11-01
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| Series: | Comptes Rendus. Géoscience |
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| Online Access: | https://comptes-rendus.academie-sciences.fr/geoscience/articles/10.5802/crgeos.277/ |
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| author | Tramontini, Matías Rosas-Carbajal, Marina Zyserman, Fabio Iván Longuevergne, Laurent Nussbaum, Christophe Marteau, Jacques |
| author_facet | Tramontini, Matías Rosas-Carbajal, Marina Zyserman, Fabio Iván Longuevergne, Laurent Nussbaum, Christophe Marteau, Jacques |
| author_sort | Tramontini, Matías |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Quantifying groundwater storage variations is key for sustainable water resource management, estimating droughts and climate change impacts, and the environmental protection of the Critical Zone. Despite the many geophysical methods traditionally used to indirectly infer groundwater storage, there is still a gap in the spatial and temporal scales covered. Furthermore, the groundwater mass quantification is usually done through proxies as few methods characterize a physical property directly linked to the volumetric water content. In this work we employ for the first time, the muography method to investigate groundwater variations at the scale of 100 m. We study a mountainous karstic aquifer in the Mont Terri Underground Rock Laboratory (URL), Switzerland. We use a muon detector to compute a muon image of average density, and to study muon rate variations over time. After correcting these variations for atmospheric effects, we interpret the muon time series in terms of groundwater storage changes. Comparisons with river stream flow, and volumetric soil water content data, show similar variation patterns to the groundwater estimates from our muon measurements. Since we only observe significant changes in a particular region of the whole volume scanned by our detector, we analyze in detail the role of the geometrical setup in the sensitivity of muography to groundwater variations. We find that the geometrical relationship between the trajectories of detected muons and the topography has a significant effect in the amplitude of the detected variations. This finding points to a potential muon-based groundwater storage monitoring with optimized experimental setups to amplify the groundwater storage signal. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-57e30df075a544a19e1a4464d94557c5 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 1778-7025 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2024-11-01 |
| publisher | Académie des sciences |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Comptes Rendus. Géoscience |
| spelling | doaj-art-57e30df075a544a19e1a4464d94557c52025-02-07T10:41:12ZengAcadémie des sciencesComptes Rendus. Géoscience1778-70252024-11-01356G117719410.5802/crgeos.27710.5802/crgeos.277Defining the sensitivity of cosmic ray muons to groundwater storage changesTramontini, Matías0https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4635-5010Rosas-Carbajal, Marina1https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5393-0389Zyserman, Fabio Iván2https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2534-6521 Longuevergne, Laurent3https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3169-743XNussbaum, Christophe4https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8763-2320Marteau, Jacques5https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1941-6842CONICET - Facultad de Ciencias Astronómicas y Geofísicas, Universidad Nacional de La Plata, ArgentinaUniversité de Paris, Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris, CNRS, UMR 7154, F-75238 Paris, FranceCONICET - Facultad de Ciencias Astronómicas y Geofísicas, Universidad Nacional de La Plata, ArgentinaGeosciences Rennes – UMR 6118, Univ. Rennes, CNRS, 35000 Rennes, FranceSwiss Geological Survey at Swisstopo, Seftigenstrasse 264, CH-3084 Wabern, SwitzerlandInstitut de Physique des 2 Infinis de Lyon, UMR 5822, CNRS-IN2P3, Université de Lyon, Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, FranceQuantifying groundwater storage variations is key for sustainable water resource management, estimating droughts and climate change impacts, and the environmental protection of the Critical Zone. Despite the many geophysical methods traditionally used to indirectly infer groundwater storage, there is still a gap in the spatial and temporal scales covered. Furthermore, the groundwater mass quantification is usually done through proxies as few methods characterize a physical property directly linked to the volumetric water content. In this work we employ for the first time, the muography method to investigate groundwater variations at the scale of 100 m. We study a mountainous karstic aquifer in the Mont Terri Underground Rock Laboratory (URL), Switzerland. We use a muon detector to compute a muon image of average density, and to study muon rate variations over time. After correcting these variations for atmospheric effects, we interpret the muon time series in terms of groundwater storage changes. Comparisons with river stream flow, and volumetric soil water content data, show similar variation patterns to the groundwater estimates from our muon measurements. Since we only observe significant changes in a particular region of the whole volume scanned by our detector, we analyze in detail the role of the geometrical setup in the sensitivity of muography to groundwater variations. We find that the geometrical relationship between the trajectories of detected muons and the topography has a significant effect in the amplitude of the detected variations. This finding points to a potential muon-based groundwater storage monitoring with optimized experimental setups to amplify the groundwater storage signal.https://comptes-rendus.academie-sciences.fr/geoscience/articles/10.5802/crgeos.277/MuographyGroundwater variationsHydrogeophysics |
| spellingShingle | Tramontini, Matías Rosas-Carbajal, Marina Zyserman, Fabio Iván Longuevergne, Laurent Nussbaum, Christophe Marteau, Jacques Defining the sensitivity of cosmic ray muons to groundwater storage changes Comptes Rendus. Géoscience Muography Groundwater variations Hydrogeophysics |
| title | Defining the sensitivity of cosmic ray muons to groundwater storage changes |
| title_full | Defining the sensitivity of cosmic ray muons to groundwater storage changes |
| title_fullStr | Defining the sensitivity of cosmic ray muons to groundwater storage changes |
| title_full_unstemmed | Defining the sensitivity of cosmic ray muons to groundwater storage changes |
| title_short | Defining the sensitivity of cosmic ray muons to groundwater storage changes |
| title_sort | defining the sensitivity of cosmic ray muons to groundwater storage changes |
| topic | Muography Groundwater variations Hydrogeophysics |
| url | https://comptes-rendus.academie-sciences.fr/geoscience/articles/10.5802/crgeos.277/ |
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