Geophysics

Forensic investigations concern locating, identifying, collecting and cataloging physical evidence for the purpose of presenting it in court.  One aspect of forensic investigation concerns locating clandestine evidence, which is often concealed in the subsurface.  This task is typically guided by information provided by informants, witnesses, psychics and sometimes suspects.  Resultant searches may be time consuming and frustrating to understaffed departments. Often such searches lead to excavations that destroy evidence.  Any nondestructive method used to reduce the time spent on searches and excavations and to increase the probability of locating physical evidence should be of prime interest to the law enforcement community.

The application of remote sensing methods, including but not limited to ground penetrating radar, side scan sonar, electromagnetics, magnetics, thermal Imaging and metal detectors, has seen increasing acceptance by criminal investigators.  Remote sensing methods are non-destructive and non-invasive, characteristics, which can be very important in criminal investigations.  Remote sensing methods are based on making indirect measurements of the surface of and within the earth.  These measurements are interpreted to identify and characterize contrasts due to differences in physical and/or natural properties of the materials being investigated.  Remote sensing measurements can be made by active methods, beaming a signal from a source and measuring the reflected energy, or passive methods, measuring natural radiating energy.  The resulting measurement information can present in either an imaging format, such as in aerial photography, or a non-imaging format, such as in a profile or contour maps.