Microwave-enhanced infrared thermography

Infrared techniques can be used to detect buried objects such as landmines or shallow—buried waste, by taking advantage of the diurnal heating cycle. Improvements in performance may be expected with the addition of a microwave source to heat the ground and the buried objects. We describe an experiment to demonstrate the heating effect and a two—dimensional model which describes the phenomena involved. It is suggested that variations in heating with angle of incidence and microwave wavelength may be useful discriminants.