REMOTE SENSING OF UNDERGROUND NUCLEAR EXPLOSIONS

LARGE NUCLEAR UNDERGROUND EXPLOSIVES GENERATE EXTREMELY HIGH PRESSURE FORCES AND COMPRESSIONAL WAVES WHICH INTERACT WITH THE OVERLYING MATERIALS. UNDER MOST CONDITIONS A PERMANENT SURFACE DEFORMATION OCCURS, BUT THE EXACT NATURE DEPENDS UPON THELOCAL GEOLOGY. THE DETECTABILITY BY SYNETHETIC APERTURE RADAR (SAR) AND MULTISPECTRAL IMAGERY (MSI) IS ULTIMATELY DEPENDENT UPON THE SURFACE EXPRESSION AS EXHIBITED BY SLOPE, TEXTURE, FRACTURES, AND BOTH LONG AND SHORT TERM CHANGES IN VEGETATION. THE PURPOSED STUDY WILL INVESTIGATE THE FEASIBILITY OF IDENTIFYING LARGE NUCLEAR UNDERGROUND EXPLOSIONS USING REMOTE SENSING TECHNIQUES. WHILE THE STUDY WILL USE ANY AND ALL DATA THAT ARE AVAILABLE OVER THE NEVADA NUCLEAR TEST SITE, EMPHASIS WILL BE GIVEN TO THE ULTIMATE ABILITY TO DETECT AND MAP REMOTELY UNDERGROUND EXPLOSIONS OCCURRING IN DENIED AREAS USING CHANGE DETECTION PROCEDURES AND SATELLITE OBSERVATIONS.