Comparison of Surface Phenomena Created by Underground Chemical Explosions in Dry Alluvium and Granite Geology From Fully Polarimetric VideoSAR Data

Journal Article · Wed Jun 09 00:00:00 EDT 2021 · IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Applied Earth Observations and Remote Sensing

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1109/jstars.2021.3087909· OSTI ID:1810358

West, Roger Derek ^[1]; Abbott, Robert E. ^[1]; Yocky, David A. ^[1]

---

1. Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)

Phase I of the Source Physics Experiment (SPE) series involved six underground chemical explosions, all of which were conducted at the same experimental pad. Research from the sixth explosion of the series (SPE-6) demonstrated that polarimetric synthetic aperture radar (PolSAR) is a viable technology for monitoring an underground chemical explosion when the geologic structure is Cretaceous granitic intrusive. It was shown that a durable signal is measurable by the H/A/α polarimetric decomposition parameters. After the SPE-6 experiment, the SPE program moved to the Phase II location, which is composed of dry alluvium geology (DAG). The loss of wavefront energy is greater through dry alluvium than through granite. In this article, we compare the SPE-6 analysis to the second DAG (DAG-2) experiment. We hypothesize that despite the geology at the DAG site being more challenging than at the Phase I location, combined with the DAG-2 experiment having a 3.37 times deeper scaled depth of burial than the SPE-6, a durable nonprompt signal is still measurable by a PolSAR sensor. We compare the PolSAR time-series measures from videoSAR frames, from the SPE-6 and DAG-2 experiments, with accelerometer data. We show which PolSAR measures are invariant to the two types of geology and which are geology dependent. We compare a coherent change detection (CCD) map from the DAG-2 experiment with the data from a fiber-optic distributed acoustic sensor to show the connection between the spatial extent of coherence loss in CCD maps and spallation caused by the explosion. Finally, we also analyze the spatial extent of the PolSAR measures from both explosions.

• Research Organization: Sandia National Laboratories (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)
• Grant/Contract Number: AC04-94AL85000
• OSTI ID: 1810358
• Report Number(s): SAND--2021-6742J; 697209
• Journal Information: IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Applied Earth Observations and Remote Sensing, Journal Name: IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Applied Earth Observations and Remote Sensing Vol. 14; ISSN 1939-1404
• Publisher: IEEE
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

42 ENGINEERING
Coherent change detection (CCD)
H/A/α decomposition
VideoSAR
polarimetric synthetic aperture radar (PolSAR)