Comparison of PolSAR Surface Measurements From Underground Chemical Explosions to Recorded and Predicted Surface Ground Motion
The Source Physics Experiment (SPE) Phase I conducted six underground chemical explosions at the same experimental pad with the goal of characterizing underground explosions to enhance the United States (US) ability to detect and discriminate underground nuclear explosions (UNEs). A fully-polarimetric synthetic aperture RADAR (PolSAR) collected imagery in VideoSAR mode during the fifth and sixth explosions in the series (SPE-5 and SPE-6). Previously, we reported the prompt PolSAR surface changes cause by SPE-5 and SPE-6 explosions within seconds or minutes of the underground chemical explosions, including a drop of spatial coherence and polarimetric scattering changes [1,2]. Therein it was hypothesized that surface changes occurred when surface particles experienced upward acceleration greater than 1 g. Because the SPE site was instrumented with surface accelerometers, we explore that hypothesis and report our findings in this paper. We equate explosion-caused prompt surface expressions measured by PolSAR to the prompt surface movement measured by accelerometers. We tie these findings to UNE detection by comparing the PolSAR and accelerometer results to empirical ground motion predictions derived from accelerometer recordings of UNEs collected prior to cessation of US nuclear testing. We find the single threshold greater than 1 g hypothesis is not correct for it does not explain the PolSAR results. Our findings show PolSAR surface coherence spatial extent is highly correlated with surface velocity, both measured and predicted, and the resulting surface deformation extent is corroborated by accelerometer records and the predicted lateral spall extent. PolSAR scattering changes measured during SPE-6 are created by the prompt surface displacement being larger than the spall gap [3].
- Research Organization:
- Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), Office of Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation
- Grant/Contract Number:
- NA0003525; AC04-94AL85000
- OSTI ID:
- 1836305
- Alternate ID(s):
- OSTI ID: 1738921
- Report Number(s):
- SAND-2020-7763J; 9234664
- 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:
- Institute of Electrical and Electronics EngineersCopyright Statement
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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