Soil and meteorological conditions hamper improvised explosive device (IED)/mine detection yielding inconsistent and in some cases unacceptable probability of detection (PD) and false alarm rates (FAR). To assess and identify the environmental parameters impacting standoff thermal infrared (IR) utilization over varying temporal and spatial scales a three-month study evaluated the associated degree of variance. The lessons learned include; 1) the considerable spatial variance in surface soil temperatures at varying scales of observation, 2) spatial and temporal impact of buried objects on the thermal signature of soil, 3) identification of the environmental parameters impacting the thermal spatial and temporal temperature variance for disturbed and undisturbed soil, and 4) development of a data analysis technique taking into account temperature variance (ΔT) over time (Δς) as a approach to assess buried objects.

Date Published: 12 June 2019
PDF: 1 pages
Proc. SPIE 11012, Detection and Sensing of Mines, Explosive Objects, and Obscured Targets XXIV, 110121B (12 June 2019); doi: 10.1117/12.2518480

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 11012:
Detection and Sensing of Mines, Explosive Objects, and Obscured Targets XXIV
Steven S. Bishop; Jason C. Isaacs, Editor(s)