Detection of landmines and UXO using advanced synthetic aperture radar technology

A main problem of effective landmine and UXO decontamination is efficient and reliable detection and localization of suspicious objects in reasonable time. This requirement demands for fast sensors investigating large areas with sufficient spatial resolution and sensitivity. Ground penetrating radar (GPR) is a suitable tool and is considered as a complementing sensor since nearly two decades. However, most GPRs operate in very close distance to ground in a rather punctual method of operation. In contrast, synthetic aperture radar (SAR) is a technique allowing fast and laminar stand-off investigation of an area. TIRAMI-SAR is imaging radar at lower microwaves for fast close-in detection of buried and unburied objects on a larger area. This allows efficient confirmation of a threat by investigating such regions of detection by other sensors. For proper object detection sufficient spatial resolution is required. Hence the SAR principle is applied. SAR for landmine/UXO detection can be applied by side-looking radar moved on safe ground along the area of interest, being typically the un-safe ground. Additionally, reliable detection of buried and unburied objects requires sufficient suppression of background clutter. For that purpose TIRAMI-SAR is using several antennas in multi-static configuration and wave polarization together with advanced SAR processing. The advantages and necessity of a multi-static antenna configuration for this kind of GPR approach is illustrated in the paper.