To date, most of the vehicular-mounted mine detection systems employing gound-penetrating radar are down looking in the sense that the array of radar antennas is approximately l-m forward of the vehicle and pointed straight down. Advantages of systems that are able to look forward of the vehicle by more than 10 m include the ability to make detections at greater standoff distances and to use multiple looks at targets to discriminate mines from clutter. Data collected by Jaycor's forward-looking ground-penetrating radar (FLGPR) system provides a means by which these advantages can be assessed. In February 1999, Jaycor took its FLGPR to the antitank (AT) mine lanes at Socorro, New Mexico. Jaycor made several excursions over simulated roads that contained a mix of metal- and plastic-cased AT mines on the surface and buried up to 4 in. We describe Jaycor's FLGPR system and the data collection exercise it underwent at Socorro and then analyze raw GPR sensor data with an emphasis on comparing signal strengths reflected from mines with signals reflected in the absence of mines. With knowledge of the baseline, we compute target and clutter statistics, including signal-to-clutter ratios (SCRs) for various categories of mine types and mine depths. We then demonstrate the ability to track mine signatures in the data.
