3D matched filter for detection of land mines using spatio-temporal thermal modeling

Abstract

Shallowly buried object sand the background soil have different specific heat and heat conductivity. Thus, the thermal alternation over day and night produces a thermal contrast on the soil surface that can be detected by an IR sensor. We present a simple model for the spatio-temporal temperature signature of a buried land mine by means of a 3D Gaussian function. Such a mode is appropriate since both measured data and simulations based on the finite element method show a spatio-temporal behavior that strongly resembles a 3D Gaussian shape. An advantage of modeling the signature as a Gaussian shape is that objects with approximately the same size but with different physical properties can be obtained simply from a scaled version of the original model.