Patent ID: 8288726

Claim:
A system for seeking, by remote sensing, subterranean targets including clandestine tunnels and other subterranean facilities capable of carrying enemy soldiers, terrorists, weapons, munitions, explosives, and other materiel of war or terrorism, by use of visual and thermal imagery, the system comprising: a remote infrared (IR) sensor configured for collecting IR thermography data for imaging an area potentially having subsurface targets, the IR sensor comprising a sight bore and configured to provide data collected with temperature pattern thermal resolution of less than 75 milliKelvins, the IR sensor producing multi-spectral, bore-sighted images to locate and map subsurface targets comprising tunnels, storage areas, underground chemical tanks, utility pipelines and conduits, construction debris, roadway asphalt, bridge deck asphalt, or concrete pavement internal cracks and voids; a remote light detection and ranging (LIDAR) detector configured for collecting visual imagery data for imaging the area potentially having subsurface targets; analogue and digital hardware and software configured for processing and storing multi-spectral, bore-sighted images produced by the sensors and configured for analysis, correlation, and orthorectification between IR thermography data collected by the remote IR sensor, and visual imagery data collected by the remote LIDAR detector, to provide target identification.