GPR UXO Detection, When Magnetometry Just Won't Do

Article by Guest Author Maarten Bosma.

In the field of UXO detection, the most common detection technique in The Netherlands is magnetometry. The advantage of this kind of survey is that in the right conditions you can get quick results about the possible presence of UXO in a location. But as I have explained, you need to be working in the right conditions to get the best results. When you need to perform a survey on a location close to a building, for example, it would be very difficult, if not impossible, to use the magnetometry techniques.

To get some results in those locations we need to use different techniques and one of those techniques is GPR. In this article I will show you some brief results of a GPR test we performed with the IDS Himod. This is a dual frequency system with a 200 and 600 Mhz antenna.

We performed a survey with a 50 x 50 grid with some known UXO dug in. We used several UXO and in this article I will just point out one of the results of the test. In the picture, I show you the the reflection produced by a 60 lb warhead of a 3 inch rocket. After the data-analyses we can see that the warhead is very clear in the data, and we could easily identify the object. In short, the results of the use of GPR for UXO detection are good for locations where the magnetometry won't give the right results. Of course there are also locations where the conditions for GPR aren't optimal, so you always need to choose the right system for a specific location.