Explosive chemical emissions from landmines

Chemical sensing for buried landmines is a complex phenomenon that includes mine chemical emissions, soil chemical transport/degradation, and detection at the ground surface. The technology to assess soil chemical transport has evolved and now provides a complex systems analysis capability using high fidelity computational simulation tools. Data requirements to evaluate a chemical sensing scenario include soil chemodynamic properties, micrometeorological conditions, and mine chemical emissions. Mine chemical emission tests were performed on four antipersonnel landmines using whole landmines in soil flux chambers. Soil flux chambers are simple containers that surround landmines with dry soil that act as an adsorbent. After a certain soak time, residue analysis of the soil provides the total chemical emission - a combination of both permeation and leakage. An evaluation of permeation differences into wet soil versus dry soil was also completed using thin polymer coupon sections.