Advances in the engineering of quadrupole resonance landmine detection systems

Advances in the engineering of Quadrupole Resonance (QR) sensors for landmine detection have resulted in improved performance, as well as massive reductions in power, size and weight. The next generation of vehicle-mounted QR confirmation sensors is over an order of magnitude smaller and more power efficient than the system fielded in 2002 and 2003. Early prototypes have also demonstrated a significant improvement in TNT sensitivity, and similar improvements are anticipated in RDX sensitivity during Q1 2005. Blind test results from 2003 confirm the radio frequency interference and piezo-electric ringing immunity of the Quantum Magnetics QR Confirmation Sensor (QRCS).

[1]  S. M. Klainer,et al.  Short range remote NQR measurements , 1980 .

[2]  Lawrence Carin,et al.  Signal processing for NQR discrimination of buried land mines , 1999, Defense, Security, and Sensing.

[3]  R. F. Connors,et al.  Orthorhombic and monoclinic TNT: a nitrogen -14 NQR study , 1983 .

[4]  Robert M. Deas,et al.  Landmine Detection by Nuclear Quadrupole Resonance (NQR) , 2004 .

[5]  Allen N. Garroway,et al.  Optimizing surface coils and the self-shielded gradiometer , 2003 .

[6]  Ian A. Burch,et al.  Detection of RDX and TNT mine-like targets by nuclear quadrupole resonance , 2002, SPIE Defense + Commercial Sensing.

[7]  Leslie M. Collins,et al.  Landmine detection with nuclear quadrupole resonance , 2002, IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium.

[8]  Michael D. Rowe,et al.  An NQR study of the crystalline structure of TNT , 2004, SPIE Defense + Commercial Sensing.

[9]  Peter V. Czipott,et al.  Land mine detection by nuclear quadrupole resonance , 1998, Defense, Security, and Sensing.

[10]  Robert Matthews,et al.  Field test results of a nuclear quadrupole resonance land mine detection system , 2000, Defense, Security, and Sensing.

[11]  Lawrence Carin,et al.  Statistical signal processing for detection of buried land mines using quadrupole resonance , 2000, Defense, Security, and Sensing.

[12]  Leslie M. Collins,et al.  Cramer-Rao lower bound for estimating quadrupole resonance signals in non-Gaussian noise , 2004, IEEE Signal Processing Letters.

[13]  A. N. Garroway,et al.  Surface and gradiometer coils near a conducting body: the lift-off effect. , 1998, Journal of magnetic resonance.

[14]  J. A. Smith.  Nuclear Quadrupole Resonance Spectroscopy. Part Two--Instruments. , 1971 .

[15]  Geoffrey A. Barrall,et al.  Development of a quadrupole resonance confirmation system , 2004, SPIE Defense + Commercial Sensing.

[16]  A. J. Fanelli,et al.  Observation of a solid-solid polymorphic transformation in 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene , 1969 .

[17]  Stephen W. Kercel,et al.  Wavelet-based enhancements to nuclear quadrupole resonance explosives detectors , 1998, Defense, Security, and Sensing.

[18]  S. S. Kim,et al.  Experimental Investigations of the Strong Off-Resonant Comb (SORC) Pulse Sequence in 14N NQR , 1992 .

[19]  S. M. Klainer,et al.  Multiple spin echoes in pure quadrupole resonance , 1977 .

[20]  D. Loganathan,et al.  The quadrupole resonance properties of nondetonable explosive formulations for land mine detection machine calibration and testing , 2004 .

[21]  F. Raab,et al.  Radio Frequency Pulsewidth Modulation , 1973, IEEE Trans. Commun..

[22]  Peter V. Czipott,et al.  Detection of TNT and RDX landmines by standoff nuclear quadrupole resonance , 1999, Defense, Security, and Sensing.

[23]  A. N. Titkov,et al.  Kinetics and Mechanism of Phase Transitions in the Crystals of 2,4,6-Trinitrotoluene and Benzotrifuroxane , 1994 .

[24]  John S. Waugh,et al.  Pulsed spin locking in pure nuclear quadrupole resonance , 1980 .

[25]  Vadim S. Grechishkin,et al.  Remote nuclear quadrupole resonance in solids , 1993 .

[26]  B. W. Thorpe,et al.  Polymorphism in 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene , 1969 .

[27]  Peter V. Czipott,et al.  Man portable mine detector using nuclear quadrupole resonance-first year progress and test results , 1998 .