This paper considers scattering by a buried, dielectric mine simulant at standoff distances of approximately 10 feet and depth one inch. It presents measured data, ray analyses, estimates of ray magnitudes for scattering centers, and an image formed from the data. The purpose was to understand the scattered field. Measurements, in the band 2 GHz to 6 GHz, used a fixed transmit antenna and a receive antenna that was moved over a linear path on one side of the transmit antenna. Complex reflectance was measured at one-inch intervals on the linear path. Range profiles were calculated by transforming reflectance over frequency for specific receive antenna positions. Separations of profile maxima agreed with ray path lengths fi-om the simulant's scattering centers. An image was calculated from two-dimensional spatial spectra produced by continuing the spatial spectrum of the measured data. The image had maxima near scattering centers, and it had another laterally displaced maximum. The displaced image maximum may result because the measured data maxima were spaced by 3 wavelengths, possibly generating a grating lobe. Further, reflectance was calculated as a sum of-rays-for the regions near reflectance maxima. Ray magnitudes from the front and back edges were generally larger than those for internal reflections, and magnitudes were largest near the center of antenna travel.

Date Published: 18 May 2006
PDF: 9 pages
Proc. SPIE 6217, Detection and Remediation Technologies for Mines and Minelike Targets XI, 621727 (18 May 2006); doi: 10.1117/12.661407

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 6217:
Detection and Remediation Technologies for Mines and Minelike Targets XI
J. Thomas Broach; Russell S. Harmon; John H. Holloway Jr., Editor(s)