METRATEK, Inc......................We innovate for you!
When military bases are closed, the military is responsible for clearing all dangerous substances from the land before it is turned over to civilian use. Clearance of Unexploded Ordnance (UXO) on firing ranges that have been used for many years represents an enormous cost burden to the Defense Budget. METRATEK has applied its Model 200 radar and Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) imaging technology in an effort to help the military solve this very difficult problem.
METRATEK participated and Army-sponsored program to evaluate UXO detection technologies at Jefferson Proving Grounds (JPG), Indiana. The sensors were the Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) version of the Model 200 and an Electromagnetic Induction (EMI) sensor, which detects metal via eddy currents. Based on performance at JPG, METRATEK was up-selected to participate in live site UXO detection demonstrations at Yuma Proving Ground, AZ, and McChord Air Force Base, Washington.
The METRATEK UXO detection system is shown below. The 4-wheel-drive vehicle is completely air-conditioned. It tows a plastic sheet that has three pairs of GPR antennas mounted on it and it also tows three EMI sensors. All six sensors have real-time processors that display and record detections to the sensor operators in the vehicle; examples of their outputs are shown below.
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The performance of this system at McChord Air Force Base received the top score over all competitors in all the live site demonstrations, based on highest probability of detection versus lowest false alarm rate.
When the radar and EMI sensors detect UXO targets, they must be located accurately even though they cannot be seen above the surface. We do this by using a high-quality version of the GPS satellite navigation system known as Real-time Kinematic Differential Global Positioning System. This unit is used to navigate the vehicle and locate detections to within a few centimeters. Two of the detection maps produced at McChord Air Force Base are shown below. Coverage was not uniform because the terrain was wooded and quite rough.
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