| Project Nr.: | 2.4.1.4 |
| Title: | Soil influence on dual-sensor detection of landmines and UXO |
| Description: | Soils can negatively affect the performance of electromagnetic detectors (metal detectors and ground penetrating radars). The determination of the physical properties of different soil types with different parent materials is therefore important. This project measures the absolute values, frequency dependency and spatial variability of the physical soil properties. The investigations comprise physical properties as well as geoscientific aspects. |
| Aim: | The aim is to quantify the physical parameters and to relate them to soil types, soil development and their parent material. This will lead to a soil classification system which can be used to estimate soil influence on detector performance. |
| Request: | German Armed Forces |
| Category: | Detection - Multi-sensor |
| Type: | Methodology |
| Equipment: | N/A |
| Development: | N/A |
| Time Frame: | 2007-04-01 to 2010-12-31 |
| Place: | Hannover (Leibniz Institute for Applied Geophysics, LIAG) and the Bundeswehr Technical Center for Protective and Special Technologies (WTD 52) test facility in Oberjettenberg, Germany |
| Lead Nation: | Germany |
| Partners: | Canada (Defence Research and Development Canada - DRDC), Japan (Tohoku University) |
| Point of contact: | |
| E-mail: | Not available
| Status: | Ongoing |
| Comments: | This project is a continuation of the ITEP Project 2.1.1.4, which was led by Canada. The Defence Research and Development Canada (DRDC) supported the current work by providing additional Canadian developed equipment (UTEMIS) to measure the magnetic susceptibility spectrum of soils. Measurements on 780 soil samples from the tropics were completed in summer 2009. A collaboration with the Japanese Tohoku University is ongoing during which seasonal variations of soil properties and GPR performance are studied with as main objective to better understand the soil influence on the performance of a dual-sensor detector. A test facility consisting of natural soil material and containing 30 minelike targets was built at the LIAG, Hannover. GPR measurements on these test lanes began in summer 2009 and will continue for at least one year.LIAG also assisted with the establishment of the dual-sensor test facility (ITEP Project 7.2.13) and during the dual-sensor trial (ITEP Project 2.4.2.13). A report describing the pedological and geophysical characterisation of the test lanes is available at the ITEP website. The LIAG performed previous soil characterisation work for the STEMD project (ITEP Project 2.1.2.3) and the Humin/MD project (ITEP Project 2.1.1.7). Soil samples from uncooperative soil sites around the world are welcome for further analysis in the LIAG, Hannover.Project website |
| Results/Conclusions: | Project details and initial project findings can be found in the following articles: June 2008 Geotimes, Soil Science of America Journal, January 2008 and Journal of Mine Action, issue 13, summer 2009 Further results are described in the presentation given at the August 2008 Workshop on Soil Magnetism in Cranfield (UK), a 2008 GPR conference presentation, the presentation given at the 2009 ITEP Work Plan meeting and two SPIE 2009 articles (article 1, article 2).Final results are summarised in the 2010 ITEP WGMS presentation and the article presented at the 2010 International Humanitarian Demining Symposium. In the latter article the soil characterisation is linked with detector performance (metal detector as well as dual-sensor detector) and the proposed model is validated using the results of the ITEP 2009 dual-sensor test campaign (ITEP Project 2.4.2.13).The classification system for tropical soils and the soil magnetic susceptibility map of Angola was also published in Environmental Earth Sciences. | |