Spectral polarization signature analysis and modeling in the infrared for the detection of landmines

Current electro-optical based landmine detection techniques focus on exploiting phenomena across several wavebands. In particular, polarization signatures have and continue to be a focus of interest for this problem. Our research examined these signatures in the context of a real world environment; specifically, we examined the spectral polarization characteristics of landmines and soils within a complex radiative environment. Our initial results indicate that the optical properties of sand dominate the resultant signature for the buried and flush-buried cases. For surface landmines, the polarization results are dependent on the depth of the soil coating. Therefore, a spectral phenomenological model for the polarization signature of the combined sand-landmine system was developed for the infrared band (mid-wave and long-wave infrared) to study these issues in more detail. The modeling paradigm centered on a radiative transfer approach coupled with heat transfer results to account for incident and emitted radiation simultaneously. This paper will present a description of the physics-based model for the spectral polarization signatures of buried, flush, and surface land mines.