Pipeline Damage Prevention Radar

Under Development

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Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA)

Damage Prevention and Mitigation -- Pipe Locating

The laser-illumination remote sensing technique measures atmospheric methane concentrations from an airborne platform (see picture). Similar flight-detection technology will utilize a dual-band airborne Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) to reliably detect excavation damage threats. The technology will be evaluated in areas where the pipeline routes may be obscured by dense brush, forest canopy, low cloud cover, smoke, fog, haze, precipitation or low light conditions. Flight tests were performed to verify aircraft interface, installation processes, flight operations and validate performance of SAR data processing algorithms.

SAR is widely used by the U.S. Department of Defence for threat detection, imaging and change detection from airborne platforms. Pipeline damage prevention offers a new application where SAR increases the likelihood of excavation threat detection and improves safety.

Increased Safety - The proposed development enables reduced false positives, fewer repeat flight passes and reduced weather related aircraft downtime resulting in operations cost savings.

https://primis.phmsa.dot.gov/matrix/PrjHome.rdm?prj=652
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