Development of a prototype system has shown that buried explosive compounds, such as those employed in landmines can be detected, located and identified based upon their chemical effluence. A commercially available `soft' x-ray source provides the excitation energy. Excited energy is collected by a `refractive' optic which provides high signal gain to a proprietary germanium crystal sensor/detector. Neural net based discrimination software filters the signal and comparison algorithms define the compounds of interest. The system provides `explosive/no explosive' and explosive compound identification reporting and provides GPS based mapping. The system employs first order data, is forward looking and noncontact. Testing indicates it can be efficacious from an airborne platform.

Date Published: 6 July 2000
PDF: 9 pages
Proc. SPIE 4129, Subsurface Sensing Technologies and Applications II, (6 July 2000); doi: 10.1117/12.390652

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 4129:
Subsurface Sensing Technologies and Applications II
Cam Nguyen, Editor(s)