Demonstration of Synthetic Aperture Radar and Hyperspectral Imaging for Wide Area Assessment at Pueblo Precision Bombing Range No. 2, Colorado

摘要

Munitions and explosives of concern (MEC) contamination is a high priority problem for the Department of Defense (DoD). Recent DoD estimates of MEC contamination across approximately 1,400 DoD sites indicate that 10 million acres are suspected of containing MEC. Because many sites are large in size (greater than 10,000 acres), the investigation and remediation of these sites could cost billions of dollars. However, on many of these sites only a small percentage of the site may in fact contain MEC contamination. Therefore, determining applicable technologies to define the contaminated areas requiring further investigation and munitions response actions could provide significant cost savings. Therefore, the Defense Science Board (DSB) has recommended further investigation and use of wide area assessment (WAA) technologies to address the potential these technologies offer in terms of determining the actual extent of MEC contamination on DoD sites (DSB, 2003). This report describes the cost and performance for the demonstration of two WAA technologies: synthetic aperture radar (SAR) and hyperspectral imaging (HSI). These two high-airborne sensor technologies were demonstrated at Pueblo Precision Bombing Range (PBR) No. 2 in Otero County, Colorado (Foley et al., 2007a, 2007b). Two additional high-airborne sensor technologies-- light detection and ranging (LiDAR) and orthophotography-- were also demonstrated at Pueblo PBR No. 2 (Foley, 2008), and the use of SAR and HSI as WAA technologies were evaluated both as standalone sensor technologies as well as members of a WAA sensor suite. As WAA technologies, SAR and HSI are not designed to detect individual or low-density MEC contamination but rather to detect and map former high- density regions, such as bombing targets. The SAR demonstration was conducted to determine the utility of the dataset to detect metal, such as munitions, bomb fragments, tail fins, and other surface metal associated with prior military training activity.