Inversion of Passive Electromagnetic Fields to Locate Weapons of Mass Destruction

Abstract

A resolution study, employing a 3D nonlinear optimization technique, has been undertaken to study the viability of magnetotelluric (MT) measurements to detect and characterize buried facilities that make weapons of mass destruction. A significant advantage of the MT method is that no active source is required because the method employs passive field emissions. Thus measurements can be carried out covertly. Findings indicate it is possible to image WMD facilities, including depth of burial and lateral extent if a sufficient number of measurements are taken on the perimeter of the facility. Moreover if a station measurement can be made directly over the facility then the resolution is improved accordingly. In all cases it was not possible to image the base of the facility with any confidence as well as provide any precise inferences on the facility electrical conductivity. This later finding, however, is really not that critical since knowledge of facility geometry is far more important than knowledge of its conductivity. For the WMD problem it is recommended that MT measurements be made solely with the magnetic field ratios. In this context it would then be possible to deploy with far greater ease small coils about a suspected facility and would allow for the measurements to be conducted in a more covert manner. Before testing such a measurement system in the field, however, it would be necessary to carry out a similar resolution analysis as was done with MT measurements based on electric and magnetic fields. This is necessary to determine sensitivity of the proposed measurement to underground facilities along with needed data coverage and quality. Such a study is indispensable in producing useful reconstructions of underground facilities.