Measurement of nearly horizontal cosmic muons at high altitudes with the MEV telescope

An experimental investigation of multiple muon tracks detected by the MEV (Muography of Etna Volcano) cosmic ray telescope has been carried out during a commissioning phase of the project. The MEV telescope, which is based on three 1×1 m2 tracking planes segmented into scintillation strips with wavelength fibers and PMT readout, has been installed at an altitude of about 3100m a.s.l. in front of the North-East Etna crater since the summer of 2017. The main aim of this facility is to provide a detailed muography of the interior of the target object. An additional analysis of a first sample of data, taken during a period of approximately two months in 2017 has been undertaken to measure the abundance and topology of nearly horizontal multiple cosmic muons.