Document Type
Other
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Publication Date
2014
Keywords
Underwater, clearance, demining, aging, ageing, uxo, NVESD
Abstract
The Night Vision and Electronic Sensors Directorate (NVESD) has recently developed a sensor system, named “Hammerhead,” capable of discriminating between explosives and explosive-related compounds in water at concentrations of 10-100 parts per trillion. The sensor discriminates between different compounds using a biologically inspired fluorescent polymer sensor array, which responds with a unique fluorescence quenching pattern during exposure to various explosives.1 The sensor achieves sensitivities of 10-100 parts per trillion by employing a preconcentrator upstream of the sensor inlet, which traps explosives from water flowing over it, then releases the explosives at elevated concentrations during thermal desorption. NVESD recently packaged this technology into a field-deployable technology demonstrator, which was tested at Ordnance Reef, Oahu, Hawaii, during a larger technology demonstration for the removal and demilitarization of unexploded ordnance (UXO) from the ocean floor.
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