NVision Solutions, Inc. Geographic Information Solutions

INSITE VI - Subsurface Target Detection

Underground criminal and terrorist activity poses a grave threat to America’s security and defense. These threats now operate quite literally underground, below the surface of the earth at a rapidly increasing rate. Underground threats include border tunnels used for smuggling drugs, weapons, and people; tunnel attempts into American bases and prisons abroad; caves used for hiding weapons (and people by America’s enemies) and underground bunkers used for hiding people, weapons, and even nuclear weapon facilities.

The recent discovery of an Al Qaeda training video planning a bioterrorism attack on the US using Mexican border tunnels recently made headlines which highlighted the problem:

Fox News Broadcast
http://www.foxnews.com/search-results/m/22418241/tunnels-of-terror.htm

Time Magazine Article
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1895430,00.html?cnn=yes

CNN Broadcast
http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/crime/2009/06/12/pkg.mexico.drug.tunnel.kold

It is widely believed no technology exists to “reliably” locate subterranean structures even in suspected areas of interest (AOI).

Solution

NVision and its partners Aerotec LLC (http://www.aerotecUSA.com) and EnTech (http://www.entechworld.com) have a proven method for clearly and reliably detecting subsurface threats. The system, named INSITE VI (IS6), uses Infrared Thermography, LIDAR collected during either day or night aerial missions and color aerial photography. Target areas for subterranean investigation are prioritized by profiling likely sites based on the requirements for the underground activity. For example border tunnels require real estate on both sides of the border as well as a reasonable soil type to excavate and cave hideouts require water sources and reasonable ingress/egress routes.

This 2006 IS6 product clearly denotes the thermal shadow of a tunnel at the US border in Calexico, Calif.
This 2006 IS6 product clearly denotes the thermal shadow of a tunnel at the US border in Calexico, Calif.
This IS6 image highlights a Calexico, CA tunnel running from Mexico into California under a busy street.</b>
This IS6 image highlights another Calexico, CA tunnel running from Mexico into California under a busy street.
The custom built IS6 sensor is attached to the bottom of a helicopter and flown over suspected underground target locations.
The custom built IS6 sensor is attached to the bottom of a helicopter and flown over suspected underground target locations.

The IS6 team provided a proof-of-concept demonstration for a multi-agency audience lead by Amy L. Clymer with NORAD-USNORTHCOM along a 2.5 mile stretch of the US-Mexico border at Calexico, Calif. in September 2006. The federal government challenged the IS6 team to locate six known tunnel locations without any assistance or direction. The final analysis yielded nine tunnels including three yet unknown to NORAD-USNORTHCOM.

IS6 can operate effectively at an altitude between 500-1500 feet. The maximum measured view depth to date is 80 feet below the surface under specific conditions. The altitude of the IS6 platform controls the ground resolution and potentially the depth of view underground. The raw data is processed using EnTech Engineering's patented algorithms using software developed by Aerotec and NVision. Geospatial analysis provides prioritization of target flight paths as well as post-processing prioritization for manual geointelligence analysis and AOI investigation job tracking.

IS6 can locate objects as small as a few feet across to cavernous voids underground of any size. The IS6 aerial platform can be deployed as quickly as any other remote sensing platform and processing takes approximately two weeks for a five-mile stretch. The system can scale linearly with the addition of more hardware and analysis resources.

Collateral Benefits

In addition to detecting security threats the IS6 system has collateral benefits which can assist in disaster prevention, disaster recovery or post-war reconstruction. IS6 also provides detailed terrain data and geo referenced color photos which can be used for both related and unrelated purposes.

The IS6 geospatial product can highlight weaknesses in levees and uncharted utility lines and pipelines. The IS6 team created a proof of concept product for the London Canal levee in New Orleans in 2009 and found both severe and minor internal deterioration of the levee not visible from aerial or ground surveys. The IS6 team performed another proof of concept at the site of a proposed railyard in Texas in 2008. Authorities gave the go ahead to the railroad developers to dig because no utility lines were known to be in the area. The IS6 team located hundreds of active and abandoned natural gas lines on the site from the air.

IS6 is also capable of detecting leaking septic tanks in residential areas leading to non-point source pollution of water bodies. This application was tested in a NASA study several years ago. The IS6 team worked with NASA on a follow-up study to research cost effectiveness using the latest available technology.

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