Evolution of buried UXO classification using broadband fully polarimetric GPR

The OSU/ESL GPR systems have been applied to the detection and classification of buried unexploded ordnance (UXO) for years. It has evolved from an impulse and single-polarization (cross-polarization) system utilizing complex natural resonance (CNR) feature to the recent step-frequency and fully polarimetric system utilizing CNR, polarization and scattering features. Significant progresses in measurement techniques, feature extraction algorithms and classification rules have been made during the past three years under the support US DoD ESTCP program. These important progresses were motivated by field data collected at government test sites such as Tyndall AFB (1999), Blossom Point (2000) and Jefferson Proving Ground (2001). This paper briefly describes these progresses and the motivations behind them.