Stols™ Magnetic Survey At Sandia National Laboratory Technical Area 2
John E. Foley · 1994
Technical Area 2 (TA2), a 45 acre site located at Kirtland AFB in Albuquerque NM, was run by Sandia National Laboratory (SNL) as a nuclear weapons assembly facility from 1948 to the mid 1950’s, and as an explosive device development facility since the mid 1950’s. Presently, SNL is developing an environmental remediation plan for TA2 which will allow for the safe closure of the facility. One main concern of SNL is the location of underground burial containers, such as 55 gallon drums, which may contain radioactive or chemical waste products. In order to create a maps of buried ferromagnetic objects located at TA2, the Surface Towed Ordnance Location System (STOLS™) was deployed by GEO-CENTERS, INC. at this site. This survey, which covered over approximately 20 acres, was performed in September, 1993. Total field magnetic data was recorded on seven separate magnetometers at a rate of 20 samples per second per sensor. The magnetometers were mounted on a sensor platform which is towed by a low magnetic signature vehicle and positioned with a GPS navigation system. Concurrent with the survey a reference magnetometer was deployed in an adjacent area to record the low frequency variations in the Earth’s ambient field. These reference data were later subtracted from the survey data to produce a total field magnetic anomaly map of the site. Data was collected at sufficient density to allow for final interpolation onto a 10 cm grid. All data were collected, processed and analyzed in the field, on the same day of the survey. The STOLS™ magnetometer surveys at TA2 resulted in very dense and highly accurate magnetic anomaly maps of the facilities. The magnetic anomalies detected in the data were modeled to produce a catalog of buried ferromagnetic objects at the sites. Buried objects are described in terms of latitude, longitude, depth and size. Detected objects included fence posts, roadbeds, buried pipes and barrels.