Remote Sensing as a Tool for the Detection of Clandestine Mass Graves

Abstract

ABSTRACTMass graves in both an international and domestic setting often present a difficult, time-consuming and complicated detection problem. Historically, witness testimony has been relied upon to determine location. Other detection methods such as geophysical resistivity, magnetometry and ground penetrating radar may be, and have been, employed for the detection of graves with some success. However, these methods require that the grave locale is known fairly precisely and that personnel can physically walk the grave site to undertake data collection. Remote sensing (i.e. airborne and satellite imagery) is a detection tool that can be used to search larger geographical areas without placing investigative personnel at risk. Hyperspectral imagery acquired from aircraft or satellite provides over a hundred layers (bands) of data that can be selectively examined and analyzed to detect subtle changes in the reflectance spectra of the surface. Work presented here indicates, from an ongoing long-term experimental mass grave and an actual mass grave site, that remote sensing is a powerful detection tool, one which has the capacity to discriminate a mass grave from its surroundings in real-time or in certain cases even retrospectively.