VideoSAR collections to image underground chemical explosion surface phenomena

Fully-polarimetric X-band (9.6 GHz center frequency) VideoSAR with 0.125-meter ground resolution flew collections before, during, and after the fifth Source Physics Experiment (SPE-5) underground chemical explosion. We generate and exploit synthetic aperture RADAR (SAR) and VideoSAR products to characterize surface effects caused by the underground explosion. To our knowledge, this has never been done. Exploited VideoSAR products are “movies” of coherence maps, phase-difference maps, and magnitude imagery. These movies show two-dimensional, time-varying surface movement. However, objects located on the SPE pad created unwanted, vibrating signatures during the event which made registration and coherent processing more difficult. Nevertheless, there is evidence that dynamic changes are captured by VideoSAR during the event. VideoSAR provides a unique, coherent, time-varying measure of surface expression of an underground chemical explosion.