Environmental Impacts to the Chemical Signature Emanating from Buried Unexploded Ordnance

摘要

The goal of locating buried UXO and land mines is a significant challenge to science and technology. Technology development efforts are under way to use chemical sensors that can discriminate inert ordnance and clutter from live munitions that continue to be a threat. However, the chemical signature is affected by multiple environmental phenomena that can enhance or reduce its presence and transport behavior, and can affect the distribution of the chemical signature in the environment. For example, the chemical among these phases, including the spatial distribution, is the key in designing appropriate detectors, e.g., gas, aqueous or solid phase sampling instruments. A fundamental understanding of the environmental conditions that affect the chemical signature is needed to describe the favorable and unfavorable conditions of a chemical detector based survey to minimize the consequences of a false negative.