A Standoff, Focused-Beam Land Mine Radar

This paper describes a standoff, focused-beam, ground-penetrating radar (GPR) for detecting buried antipersonnel (AP) mines. The radar features a 1 to 6 GHz, pulsed stepped-frequency microwave source with hardware range gate, an ultrawide bandwidth feed antenna, and an offset parabolic reflector. A focused-beam, created by feeding the reflector from an offset position, reduces the surface clutter and improves the detection of buried mines. A processing technique based on spectral analysis (Prony method) is developed in an attempt to reduce surface clutter. Tests conducted at the Fort A.P. Hill countermine test lanes showed excellent detection capability for both metallic and nonmetallic mines. Index Terms--Antenna, clutter, ground-penetration radar, land mine.