Growth in the size of the muography community has continued to escalate with growth in the development of new methods, concepts, applications and promotion of muography. In order to share these advances with the worldwide community, researchers from academic and industrial sectors, diplomatic partners, government officials, ESRs, educators, artists and other contributors to the muography community representing over 20 countries met from December 13-15 for the MUOGRAPHERS 2022 General Assembly. This was the first virtual Muographers General Assembly. Since this format is more flexible, cost effective and time effective, it was possible to include 70 presentations to give participants a sense of the scope of muography.
The first day was introduced with messages of support to the muography community by H.E. the Ambassador of Hungary to Japan H.E. Dr. Norbert Palanovics (Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Hungary), Dr. Yujiro Richard Yamada (Science Director, Office of Naval Research Global, US Navy), Dr. Gediminas Ramanauskas (First Counsellor, Head of Science, Innovation, Digital and Other EU Policies Section) and Mr. Akira Yanagimoto (Parliamentary Vice-Minister of the Environment, Japan/Parliamentary Vice-Minister of Cabinet Office, Japan).
During the assembly sessions, there was an emphasis on the exchange of information between funding agencies and Muographers. One of the main points highlighted by these interactions was the importance of opening up dialogues with researchers outside the field to encourage expansion and opportunities of community as a whole. A wide array of inspection/monitoring applications including volcanoes and earthquakes, social infrastructures, extraterrestrial targets, CO2 storage, cultural heritage, underwater and underground applications, storm monitoring, medical care, environmental hazard monitoring, contraband detection and nuclear reactors were discussed. In addition, new muography applications, cosmic PNT topics, cyclone muography and cosmic communication, were introduced along with ideas for future national/international collaborative proposals, new detector/muon tracking technologies, art/science collaborations and education/outreach topics.