Detection/identification of land mines by lateral migration radiography

Mine detection measurements employing a new X-ray backscatter imaging technique were recently performed using 12 actual antipersonnel and antitank mines. The resulting images are unique in their definitive detail with clear signatures allowing mine-type identification. The mine's exterior shape combined with the interior air volumes yield vivid, easily recognized image patterns. Moreover, the acquired mine images indicate the vertical location relative to the soil surface as well as the horizontal position. The measurement results show that this new method implies land mine detection/identification to a depth-of-burial of 10 centimeters in usual soils with near-zero false positive alarm rate. The new X-ray Compton backscatter imaging technique, described as lateral migration radiography (LMR), was developed specifically for solution of the buried, plastic land mine detection problem. The LMR imaging modality employs an array of two types of large sensitive-area detectors. Manipulation of the set of images acquired by this detector array results in systematic removal of mine-image cloaking due to soil surface features and slope.