Mine detection experiments using hyperspectral sensors

Hyperspectral imaging is an important technology for the detection of surface and buried land mines from an airborne platform. For this reason, hyperspectral was included with SAR sensors in the two deployments that were executed by the CECOM RDEC Night Vision and Electronic Systems Directorate (NVESD) in Fall 2002 and in Spring 2003. The purpose of these deployments was to bring together a wide variety of airborne sensors for the detection of mines, with well ground-truthed targets. The hyperspectral sensors included the Airborne Hyperspectral Imager (AHI), a University of Hawaii LWIR HSI sensor and the Compact Airborne Spectral Sensor (COMPASS), an NVESD VNIR/SWIR sensor. Both a high frequency SAR and a ground penetrating radar were also flown. These experiments were carried out at sites where an extensive array of buried and surface mines were deployed. At the first location, on the east coast, the mines were deployed against several different backgrounds ranging from bare dirt to long grass. At the second location in the desert southwest, the mines were placed on backgrounds ranging from loose sand to mixed sand and vegetation. The COMPASS and AHI sensors were both placed on the Twin Otter aircraft, and data was collected with the airplane as low as 700 ft and as high as 4000 ft. In this paper, the data collected on surface mines will be reviewed, and specific examples from each background type presented. Spectral detection algorithms will be applied to the data and the results of the algorithm processing will be presented.