Lidar signatures of very shallow water (VSW) and surf zone (SZ) mines

The Anti-Invasion Mine Signature Measurement and Assessment for Remote Targeting (AIMSMART) program has undertaken a lidar mine signature data collection for ONR to characterize electro-optic (EO) signatures of anti-invasion mines and environmental factors affecting their detection in the littorals. Two lidar sensors, one 3-D and one polarimetric, both developed by Arete, were fielded at the FRF test facility in Duck, NC. Data were collected with these sensors over a wide variety of mine targets, obstacles, backgrounds, water quality, and wave movements. The principle goal of this analysis is to characterize lidar signature features, especially 3-D, of in-water mines and correlate those features to physical processes in the VSW and SZ environments. This paper describes the approach to characterizing these mine signatures and presents initial results from the analysis.