Impact of soil water content on landmine detection using radar and thermal infrared sensors

Abstract

Land mines are a major problem in many areas of the world. In spite of the fact that many different types of land mines sensors have been developed, the detection of non-metallic land mines remains very difficult. Most landmine detection sensors are affected by soil properties such as water content, temperature, electrical conductivity and dielectric constant. The most important of these is water content since it directly influences the three other properties. In this study, the ground penetrating radar and thermal IR sensors were used to identify non-metallic landmines in different soil and water content conditions.