ALERT | Awareness and Localization of Explosive-Related Threats

The focus of this thrust is to research the basic science of new sensing modalities, create new sensors which exploit conventional sensing modalities, configure existing sensors, and develop and implement interpretation strategies for each separate sensor to best detect and identify explosive-related threats. The various individual sensors will be combined into hybrid systems that use multiple modalities in Thrust F3, “Explosives Sensor Systems”

The sensors developed and used by the research in this thrust include infrared thermography and multispectral emission spectroscopy; microwave, millimeter-wave and terahertz imaging to sense geometric size and shape as well as dielectric composition; chemical mass spectroscopy; and electromagnetic sensors to identify unintentional electronic emissions (see [Moore '07]).

The sensors will operate in three suspected target regimes: 1) distant targets, requiring stand-off detection of hazards while they are still far enough away to minimize the threat, and 2) mid-range or close-in targets which offer the possibility of enhanced sensing discrimination without explicitly surrounding the target, and 3) intimately near targets which can be non-invasively examined with portal sensors. The first is preferable, but is most challenging because of the decreased sensitivity of sensors, increased clutter from multiple individuals, vehicles, buildings, and terrain. Our plan is to consider a multi-layer approach, using the best sensors, with the stand-off sensor alarming when there is a slight possibility of potentially hazardous abnormality, which is then ruled out or confirmed with close-in sensors.

Project Leaders

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Faculty and Staff

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Students

Search Publications

• Human body profile reconstruction for detection of concealed objects Y. Alvarez, B. Valdes, J. A. Martinez-Lorenzo, F. Las-Heras and C. M. Rappaport IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, accepted for publication (accepted) 2012.
• An improved SAR based technique for accurate profile reconstruction. Y. Alvarez, B. Valdes, J. A. Martinez-Lorenzo, F. Las-Heras and C. M. Rappaport IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, accepted for publication (accepted) 2012.
• Generation of Elliptically Polarized Terahertz Waves from Laser-Induced Plasma with Double Helix Electrodes Xiaofei Lu and X.-C. Zhang Physical Review Letters, 2012. 108: p. 123903 2012.
• SAR imaging of suicide bombers wearing concealed explosive threats Martínez-Lorenzo, J. A., Quivira, F., and Rappaport, C. M. Progress In Electromagnetics Research, Vol. 125, 2012. 255-272 2012.
• GPU implementation of the Modified Equivalent Current Approximation (MECA) method L. Tirado, B. Valdes, J. A. Martinez-Lorenzo, C. M. Rappaport, H. Gomez-Sosa and O. Rubinos Applied Computational Electromagnetics Society Journal, accepted for publication (accepted) 2012.
• SAR imaging of suicide bombers wearing concealed explosive threats J. A. Martinez-Lorenzo, F. Quivira and C. M. Rappaport Progress In Electromagnetics Research, 125:255–272 2012.
• Analysis of Gouy phase shift for optimizing terahertz air-biased-coherentdetection Huanyu He and X.-C. Zhang Applied Physics Letters, 2012. 100: p. 061105 2012.
• Three-dimensional wedge diffraction correction deduced by the stationary phase method on the modified equivalent current approximation H. Gomez-Sosa, J. A. Martinez-Lorenzo and O. Rubinos Progress In Electromagnetics Research - M, 23:207–227 2012.
• Predicting the heat of explosion of nitroaromatic compounds through their NBO charges and the 15N NMR chemical shifts of the nitro groups Hernández-Rivera, S.P. and Infante-Castillo, R. Adv. Phys. Chem. 2012.
• A New Physical Optics Based Approach to Subreflector Shaping for Reflector Antenna Gonzalez-Valdes, B., Martinez-Lorenzo, J.A., Rappaport, C., and Pino, A. accepted for publication in IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation (accepted), 2012.

Search Posters

• A persistent Survillance Technique for the Detection of Explosives and Explosive Precursors O.J. Gregory, M.J. Platek, Y. Chu, K. Waterman, C. Hurley, M. Amani
• Investigation of CdSe Quantum Dot Quenching by Interaction with TNT Christopher A. Latendresse, JungMin Hwang, William B. Euler
• Nanotechnology for Detection of Ultralow Levels of Explosives Benjamin Saute, Radha Narayanan
• Particle removal measurements using the aerodynamic approach and Explosive particles evaporation rate measurements Yevgeny Zakon, Paz Elia, Yehuda Zeiri
• Measurements of the adhesion forces between explosive particles and various substrates Yevgeny Zakon, Paz Elia, Yehuda Zeiri
• Near field signal processing for the whole body imaging inversion problem Jose A. Martinez, Luis Tirado, Fernando Quivira, Galia Ghazi, Kathryn Williams, Carey M. Rappaport
• Computational Modeling of Close-In Millimeter Wave Radar for the Detection of Concealed Threats Kathryn Williams , Carey M. Rappaport, Ann W. Morgenthaler, Jose Martinez, Richard Obermeier, Fernando Quivira
• Transition Projects : PinPointer TM And LaserScan TM John R. Castro-Suarez, Leidy P. Dorado, Miguel Goenaga, Miguel Velez-Reyes, Samuel P. Hernandez-Rivera
• Vibrational Spectroscopy Standoff Explosives Detection John R.Castro Suarez, William Ortiz, Hilsamar Felix, Leonardo C. Pacheco,Samuel P. Hernandez-Rivera, Miguel Velez-Reyes, Max Diem
• Detection of Electronically Initiated Explosive Devices D. Beetner, S. Grant, C. Stagner, C. Osterwise, M.Halligan, B. Orr