The United States Army has expressed an interest in developing sensors that are capable of detecting explosives found in buried landmines. Techniques under development often detect explosive molecules that have migrated out of buried landmines, through the soil, and to the soil’s surface. Since the success of detectors using the above method depends on the presence of explosives at the soil surface, it is critical to have an understanding of the nature of the explosive signature that is being detected. Many factors affect the migration of explosives from the landmine through the soil. These factors include, but are not limited to, soil moisture, terrain, mine type, and explosive type. This is a complex system to study. The experiment presented here attempts to monitor the explosive signature above twenty-seven landmines that have been buried for a number of years in a temperate environment. There are nine mine types represented in the experiment. Five of the mine types are anti-tank mines and four of the mine types are anti-personnel mines. Soil samples have been collected above and around these twenty-seven mines and analyzed using gas chromatography coupled with an electron capture detector (GC-ECD). Samples were collected in June 2001, October 2001, February 2002, and June 2002. Results of the GC-ECD analysis of these samples are presented in this paper.

Date Published: 11 September 2003
PDF: 10 pages
Proc. SPIE 5089, Detection and Remediation Technologies for Mines and Minelike Targets VIII, (11 September 2003); doi: 10.1117/12.487252

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 5089:
Detection and Remediation Technologies for Mines and Minelike Targets VIII
Russell S. Harmon; John H. Holloway Jr.; J. T. Broach, Editor(s)