ESTCP Pilot Program Classification Approaches in Munitions Response Camp Butner, North Carolina
Abstract
Munitions response is a high-priority problem for the Department of Defense (DoD). Approximately 3,800 sites, comprising tens of millions of acres, are suspected of contamination with military munitions, which include unexploded ordnance (UXO) and discarded military munitions. The Military Munitions Response Program (MMRP) is charged with characterizing and, where necessary, remediating munitions-contaminated sites. When a site is remediated, it is typically mapped with a geophysical system, based on either a magnetometer or electromagnetic induction (EMI) sensor, and the locations of all detectable signals are excavated. Many of these detections do not correspond to munitions, but rather to other harmless metallic objects or geology: field experience indicates that often in excess of 99% of objects excavated during the course of a munitions response are found to be nonhazardous items. As a result, most of the costs to remediate a munitions-contaminated site are currently spent on excavating targets that pose no threat. If these items could be determined with high confidence to be nonhazardous, some of this expense could be avoided and the available funding applied to more sites. Classification is a process used to make a decision about the likely origin of a signal. In the case of munitions response, high-quality geophysical data can be interpreted with physics-based models to estimate parameters that are related to the physical attributes of the object that resulted in the signal, such as its physical size, aspect ratio, wall thickness, and material properties. The values of these parameters may then be used to estimate the likelihood that the signal arose from an item of interest, that is, a munition.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jun 01, 2011
- Accession Number
- ADA574231
Entities
People
- Anne M. Andrews
- Herbert Nelson
- Katherine Kaye
Organizations
- Environmental Security Technology Certification Program