Performance analysis for radar detection of buried anti-tank and anti-personnel land mines

A full-wave model is developed for electromagnetic scattering from buried and surface land mines (both conducting and plastic), taking rigorous account of the lossy, dispersive and potentially layered properties of soil. The (polarimetric) theoretical results are confirmed via synthetic aperture radar (SAR) measurements, performed using the US Army Research Laboratory's BoomSAR, with which fully polarimetric ultra-wideband (50-1200 MHz) SAR imagery is produced. The theoretical model is used to predict wave phenomenology in various environments (beyond the limited range of parameters that can be examined experimentally). Since the efficacy of radar-based subsurface sensing depends strongly on the soil properties, we perform a parametric study of the dependence of such on the target RCS and on possible land-mine resonances.

Duke Scholars

Author Lawrence Carin Electrical and Computer Engineering