  Over the last two decades, the possibility of using RPCs in outdoors systems
has increased considerably. Our group has participated in this effort having
installed several systems and continues to work on their optimization, while
simultaneously studying and developing new approaches that can to use of RPCs
in outdoor applications.
  In particular, some detectors were deployed in the field at the Pierre Auger
Observatory in 2019 remained inactive, awaiting the commissioning of support
systems. During the pandemic the detectors were left without gas flow for more
than two years, but were recently reactivated with no major problems.
  The LouMu project combines particle physics and geophysics in order to map
large geologic structures, using Muon Tomography. The development of the RPC
system used and the data from the last two years will be presented.
  Finally, recent advances in a large area (1 m2) double gap-sealed RPC will be
presented.
