Ultra-wide-band synthetic-aperture radar for mine-field detection

Method of moments analysis of electromagnetic scattering from a general three‐dimensional dielectric target embedded in a multilayered medium

“…Moreover, it has been demonstrated that the crosspolarized fields backscattered from such a target vanish [Carin et al, , 1999, and therefore here we only present results for the copolarized backscat- target at this low frequency, this being despite the expected enhanced penetration at lower frequencies [Carin et al, 1999]. One often designs ground-penetrating systems to operate at low frequencies, to enhance soil penetration.…”

“…We also note that the results in Figure 9, for the dielectric target, are for relatively favorable operating conditions. In particular, the soil considered here (10% water content [Carin et al, 1999]) has a dielectric constant of-•7.5, which provides a significant contrast relative to the •r = 3 target. This contrast will degrade as the electrical properties of the soil approach those of the target, for which even a greater disparity is expected between the dielectric and PEC target cases.…”

Polarimetric radar interferometry for improved mine detection and surface clutter rejection

“…Thus, the phase of the interferogram corresponds to the phase difference between both SAR images angle (1) Since the phase of each SAR image is related to the distance between the antennas and the ground, a relationship between this travel path difference and the local height of each ground scatterer can be derived (2) (3) whereby we can generate an elevation map of the scene under observation. Here, and are the mean values of and , and and , respectively.…”

“…However, the detection performance of these systems is only acceptable when looking for large metallic mines or UXO. Buried plastic mines are nearly invisible to the radar and can not be detected due to the low dielectric contrast between the mine and the surrounding soil [1]. Moreover, the weak signal returned from the mine is normally obscured by the surface clutter, making its detection even more difficult.…”

“…Airborne SAR systems have been found to be an excellent tool for survey of mine fields at a large scale [1]. Several vehicle-mounted forward looking SAR systems have also been developed in order to detect and identify every single mine.…”