Results from field tests of a passive microwave radiometer mine detector

Objects hidden under a lossy medium, like soil, can be detected when the boundary between the object and the medium acts as a reflector for incoming microwave radiation. Under typical soil conditions, the maximum depth at which the object can be detected is a few wavelengths. It is therefore advantageous to employ low-frequency receivers. Under a contract from the US Army CECOM-NVESD, TRW has designed and built the Microwave Radiometer Mine Detector; a hand-held man-portable unit, which employs a cold radiometric sky as the illuminating source. The breadboard unit works at 5 Ghz using a direct RF-gain, total-power radiometer. The unit was field-tested at the Army facility at Fort AP Hill during August of 1999. The test yielded a probability of detection of 45 percent and a false alarm rate of 0.11/m 2 .