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Image of surface and underground features mapped with Mirage Systems’ airborne GPSAR system.
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In the United States more than 11,000,000 acres are estimated to be contaminated with hazardous materials in over 9,000 sites. These sites are currently unusable and many times dangerous due to underground munitions, chemicals and other buried hazards.
Worldwide the numbers grow astronomically to over 120 million landmines in 61 countries. The UN estimates it will take $30 Billion to clean up all the landmines in the world using current technology. Environmental cleanup necessitates a thorough and efficient site characterization and remediation process. Current UXO sensing technologies, including magnetometers and EM sensors, have typically been used for reconnaissance mapping.
The Problem with “Mag & Flag”
“Mag & Flag” is a common process for environmental cleanup and demining operations. This means using a magnetometer or other hand-held detection device to locate suspected targets and insert survey flags. This makes securing large acreages of land impractical and very expensive.
The successful implementation of a ground vehicle-based GPSAR system could increase land coverage up to 180 times (terrain permitting). An airborne system that uses a helicopter, an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) or an ultralight aircraft could increase the land coverage to over 3000 times today's mag & flag solutions. An accurate survey of hundreds of acres per day means that these hazardous lands can be returned to beneficial and fertile lands within a satisfactory budget and time frame.
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