Influence of internal structure on landmine radar signatures

Cheap and easy to use, landmines are among the favourite weapons in civil wars and wars of insurgency and are used by governments and guerrillas alike. These 'eternal sentinels' stand guard long after the conflicts have ended and kill and maim without mercy or discrimination. Therefore, there is a pressing need to remove these devices and to clear the contaminated land. As many landmines have low metal content they are difficult to detect using traditional techniques such as metal detectors, hence Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) is an attractive tool in landmine clearance. Many investigations of landmine detection using GPR make use of surrogate landmine targets, since real landmines are difficult to obtain. This paper investigates the importance of the fidelity of such surrogates in terms of their external design, internal structure and explosive content.