Low Frequency Radar for Buried Target Detection

The detection and mitigation of unexploded ordnance (UXO) is recognised to be a serious global issue. Many millions of landmines have been deployed in recent conflicts, with few records of what has been laid and where. As well as landmines, other types of UXO include unexploded shells, mortar bombs and missiles, scatterable mines fired from mortars or artillery or dropped from aircraft or helicopters, and cluster munitions. Not only do such weapons cause injury and death to innocent civilians, but also they deny the use of substantial areas of land for agricultural and other economic purposes, which may be critical in countries where the threshold of poverty is already low. Ground-penetrating radar (GPR) is one of a family of sensors that may be used to detect UXO. In addition, GPR may also be used to detect other classes of target such as Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs), weapons caches, and tunnels; further applications of GPR include archaeology, forensics, and the detection of buried pipes and cables. The purpose of this chapter is to present an account of the principles of ground-penetrating radar and their use in detecting buried UXO.