Extended Reach, High-Performance Distributed Acoustic Sensing Platform for Underground Nuclear Explosion Monitoring

Today's distributed acoustic sensing (DAS} interrogation units (IUs} face limitations in sensing range, signal-to-noise ratio (SNR}, and cost that prevent their widespread adoption for underground nuclear explosion monitoring. Sequent Logic is developing a DAS IU based on a novel and proprietary technique that can achieve longer range and higher SNR while significantly reducing cost. The Phase I project will focus on extending the sensing range of Sequent's DAS IU to long sensing length per channel, optimizing algorithms, and defining a system architecture that leverages highly integrated components to reduce cost. Industry-standard SEAFOM testing will be performed to benchmark system performance against state-of-the-art DAS IUs. If successful, this project will result in a high-performance, low-cost DAS IU that can leverage existing telecom fiber infrastructure for underground nuclear explosion monitoring at regional to global scales. Beyond this application, the technology has broad potential to accelerate the adoption of DAS for other use cases such as seismic imaging, pipeline monitoring, and perimeter security.