Low Power Satellite Based Laser / Imaging System Could Easil

The mililary needs some material that can be crop dusted onto road
beds that can only be disturbed by digging and not by vehicle traffic.

Ordinary traffic performs a certain amount of "gardening" on a dirt
road, meaning some of thetaggant_will_ be mixed into the roadbed
material. How deeply depends on the exact nature of the material (sand/
clay/organic dirt, salts, concrete, asphalt, etc.) the kind and degree
of traffic, the weather _and_ climate, and so on.

Worst case you get washboarding which requires periodic repair,
meaning deeper penetration by thetaggant. It will however be more
evenly distributed than the sort of localized dugskullery you're
talking about.

Hence the sort of disturbance due to traffic will be easily
differentiable from that due to digging.

The material must be deposited with a characteristic "thumbprint" that
can be identified with the appropriate sensors but cannot be
duplicated, i.e., it cannot be swept up and spread over a freshly
planted bomb.

This method wouldn't reveal the old bombs but it would make it easy to
spot where a roadbed was recently dug up.

Just off the top of my head, how about microscopic polymer chips
like those used in dynamite. Rather than the complex layering used to
indicate batch numbers etc. it would be infused infused with an
additive which, when exposed to UV, fluoresces in the IR, not the
visible. If laid down by ground vehicle or say Predator or other drone
during low traffic periods it would have a fairly even characteristic
distribution, and any disturbance will be immediately visible by
inspection by personnel wearing IR goggles during the day, and at
night with IR goggles and the assistance of a UV lamp. Inspection
could also be done by suitably-equipped drones of course.

Attempts to "sweep up" and use the dust to cover new bombs will not
replicate the dust distribution as laid down originally.

Mark L. Fergerson

Shine a 4 milliwatt 645 nm wavelength dollar store pet laser onto a
red reflector lens at night and it explodes into color.

Slender reflective fibers would easily reflect a relatively low power
satellite based laser a couple hundred miles back to the satellite and
show up on satellite imaging. A very weak magnet on each fiber could
orient the fibers in specified directions with respect to the earth's
magnitic field it the time it would take to fall hundreds or thousands
of feet from a plane.

It would be very difficult to tramp over the fibers without disturbing
the orientation.

When Al Quada tries a night time ambush, everyone on the planet knows
about it.

The mililary needs some material that can be crop dusted onto road
beds that can only be disturbed by digging and not by vehicle
traffic.

Ordinary traffic performs a certain amount of "gardening" on a dirt
road, meaning some of thetaggant_will_ be mixed into the roadbed
material. How deeply depends on the exact nature of the material
(sand/ clay/organic dirt, salts, concrete, asphalt, etc.) the kind
and degree of traffic, the weather _and_ climate, and so on.

Worst case you get washboarding which requires periodic repair,
meaning deeper penetration by thetaggant. It will however be more
evenly distributed than the sort of localized dugskullery you're
talking about.

Hence the sort of disturbance due to traffic will be easily
differentiable from that due to digging.

The material must be deposited with a characteristic "thumbprint"
that can be identified with the appropriate sensors but cannot be
duplicated, i.e., it cannot be swept up and spread over a freshly
planted bomb.

This method wouldn't reveal the old bombs but it would make it easy
to spot where a roadbed was recently dug up.

Just off the top of my head, how about microscopic polymer chips
like those used in dynamite. Rather than the complex layering used to
indicate batch numbers etc. it would be infused infused with an
additive which, when exposed to UV, fluoresces in the IR, not the
visible. If laid down by ground vehicle or say Predator or other
drone during low traffic periods it would have a fairly even
characteristic distribution, and any disturbance will be immediately
visible by inspection by personnel wearing IR goggles during the
day, and at night with IR goggles and the assistance of a UV lamp.
Inspection could also be done by suitably-equipped drones of course.

Attempts to "sweep up" and use the dust to cover new bombs will not
replicate the dust distribution as laid down originally.

Mark L. Fergerson

Shine a 4 milliwatt 645 nm wavelength dollar store pet laser onto a
red reflector lens at night and it explodes into color.

Slender reflective fibers would easily reflect a relatively low power
satellite based laser a couple hundred miles back to the satellite and
show up on satellite imaging. A very weak magnet on each fiber could
orient the fibers in specified directions with respect to the earth's
magnitic field it the time it would take to fall hundreds or thousands
of feet from a plane.

Shine a 4 milliwatt 645 nm wavelength dollar store pet laser onto a
red reflector lens at night and it explodes into color.

Slender reflective fibers would easily reflect a relatively low power
satellite based laser a couple hundred miles back to the satellite and
show up on satellite imaging.

A very weak magnet on each fiber could
orient the fibers in specified directions with respect to the earth's
magnitic field it the time it would take to fall hundreds or thousands
of feet from a plane.

It would be very difficult to tramp over the fibers without disturbing
the orientation.

When Al Quada tries a night time ambush, everyone on the planet knows
about it.
[snip rest of crap]

Shine a 4 milliwatt 645 nm wavelength dollar store pet laser onto a
red reflector lens at night and it explodes into color.

Slender reflective fibers would easily reflect a relatively low power
satellite based laser a couple hundred miles back to the satellite and
show up on satellite imaging. A very weak magnet on each fiber could
orient the fibers in specified directions with respect to the earth's
magnitic field it the time it would take to fall hundreds or thousands
of feet from a plane.

It would be very difficult to tramp over the fibers without disturbing
the orientation.

When Al Quada tries a night time ambush, everyone on the planet knows
about it.

The mililary needs some material that can be crop dusted onto road
beds that can only be disturbed by digging and not by vehicle traffic.

Ordinary traffic performs a certain amount of "gardening" on a dirt
road, meaning some of thetaggant_will_ be mixed into the roadbed
material. How deeply depends on the exact nature of the material (sand/
clay/organic dirt, salts, concrete, asphalt, etc.) the kind and degree
of traffic, the weather _and_ climate, and so on.

Worst case you get washboarding which requires periodic repair,
meaning deeper penetration by thetaggant. It will however be more
evenly distributed than the sort of localized dugskullery you're
talking about.

Hence the sort of disturbance due to traffic will be easily
differentiable from that due to digging.

The material must be deposited with a characteristic "thumbprint" that
can be identified with the appropriate sensors but cannot be
duplicated, i.e., it cannot be swept up and spread over a freshly
planted bomb.
This method wouldn't reveal the old bombs but it would make it easy to
spot where a roadbed was recently dug up.
Just off the top of my head, how about microscopic polymer chips
like those used in dynamite. Rather than the complex layering used to
indicate batch numbers etc. it would be infused infused with an
additive which, when exposed to UV, fluoresces in the IR, not the
visible. If laid down by ground vehicle or say Predator or other drone
during low traffic periods it would have a fairly even characteristic
distribution, and any disturbance will be immediately visible by
inspection by personnel wearing IR goggles during the day, and at
night with IR goggles and the assistance of a UV lamp. Inspection
could also be done by suitably-equipped drones of course.

Attempts to "sweep up" and use the dust to cover new bombs will not
replicate the dust distribution as laid down originally.

Mark L. Fergerson

Shine a 4 milliwatt 645 nm wavelength dollar store pet laser onto a
red reflector lens at night and it explodes into color.

Slender reflective fibers would easily reflect a relatively low power
satellite based laser a couple hundred miles back to the satellite and
show up on satellite imaging.  A very weak magnet on each fiber could
orient the fibers in specified directions with respect to the earth's
magnitic field it the time it would take to fall hundreds or thousands
of feet from a plane.

Wind and aerodynamics are much stronger forces than the Earth's magnetic
field.

And?

Shine a 4 milliwatt 645 nm wavelength dollar store pet laser onto a
red reflector lens at night and it explodes into color.

Slender reflective fibers would easily reflect a relatively low power
satellite based laser a couple hundred miles back to the satellite and
show up on satellite imaging.  A very weak magnet on each fiber could
orient the fibers in specified directions with respect to the earth's
magnitic field it the time it would take to fall hundreds or thousands
of feet from a plane.

Wind and aerodynamics are much stronger forces than the Earth's magnetic
field.

Shine a 4 milliwatt 645 nm wavelength dollar store pet laser onto a
red reflector lens at night and it explodes into color.

Slender reflective fibers would easily reflect a relatively low power
satellite based laser a couple hundred miles back to the satellite and
show up on satellite imaging.  A very weak magnet on each fiber could
orient the fibers in specified directions with respect to the earth's
magnitic field it the time it would take to fall hundreds or thousands
of feet from a plane.

It would be very difficult to tramp over the fibers without disturbing
the orientation.

When Al Quada tries a night time ambush, everyone on the planet knows
about it.

This is the kind of hare-brained scheme that some Beltway Bandit would come
up with.  Fine, you can detect "tramping".  So how do you tell that it was
the bad guys and not some kid herding his Daddy's goats?  

As for
distinguishing digging from traffic, fine, let's say you can do that.  So
they pay a bunch of kids to bury thousands of coffee cans all over the place
and you can't tell where the real bomb is until you go dig them all up by
which time it's already gone off.

The mililary needs some material that can be crop dusted onto road
beds that can only be disturbed by digging and not by vehicle
traffic.

  Ordinary traffic performs a certain amount of "gardening" on a dirt
road, meaning some of thetaggant_will_ be mixed into the roadbed
material. How deeply depends on the exact nature of the material
(sand/ clay/organic dirt, salts, concrete, asphalt, etc.) the kind
and degree of traffic, the weather _and_ climate, and so on.

  Worst case you get washboarding which requires periodic repair,
meaning deeper penetration by thetaggant. It will however be more
evenly distributed than the sort of localized dugskullery you're
talking about.

  Hence the sort of disturbance due to traffic will be easily
differentiable from that due to digging.

The material must be deposited with a characteristic "thumbprint"
that can be identified with the appropriate sensors but cannot be
duplicated, i.e., it cannot be swept up and spread over a freshly
planted bomb.

This method wouldn't reveal the old bombs but it would make it easy
to spot where a roadbed was recently dug up.

  Just off the top of my head, how about microscopic polymer chips
like those used in dynamite. Rather than the complex layering used to
indicate batch numbers etc. it would be infused infused with an
additive which, when exposed to UV, fluoresces in the IR, not the
visible. If laid down by ground vehicle or say Predator or other
drone during low traffic periods it would have a fairly even
characteristic distribution, and any disturbance will be immediately
visible by inspection by personnel wearing IR goggles during the
day, and at night with IR goggles and the assistance of a UV lamp.
Inspection could also be done by suitably-equipped drones of course.

  Attempts to "sweep up" and use the dust to cover new bombs will not
replicate the dust distribution as laid down originally.

  Mark L. Fergerson- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Shine a 4 milliwatt 645 nm wavelength dollar store pet laser onto a
red reflector lens at night and it explodes into color.

The molded corner cubes are purposefully defective to spread the
return beam.  

Slender reflective fibers would easily reflect a relatively low power
satellite based laser a couple hundred miles back to the satellite and
show up on satellite imaging.

An idiot proposal in so many boring ways.  Reflected power varies as
1/r^4.  

A 500 mile flightpath through turbulent dirty atmosphere,
twice,

will need adaptive optics to form an image.

Shine a 4 milliwatt 645 nm wavelength dollar store pet laser onto a
red reflector lens at night and it explodes into color.

Slender reflective fibers would easily reflect a relatively low power
satellite based laser a couple hundred miles back to the satellite and
show up on satellite imaging.  A very weak magnet on each fiber could
orient the fibers in specified directions with respect to the earth's
magnitic field it the time it would take to fall hundreds or thousands
of feet from a plane.

Wind and aerodynamics are much stronger forces than the Earth's magnetic
field.

And?

And in the real world a "very weak magnet" wouldn't do crap,

much less
"orient the fibers in specified directions", which, if it would work,
would be one direction.

Shine a 4 milliwatt 645 nm wavelength dollar store pet laser onto a
red reflector lens at night and it explodes into color.

Slender reflective fibers would easily reflect a relatively low
power satellite based laser a couple hundred miles back to the
satellite and show up on satellite imaging. A very weak magnet on
each fiber could orient the fibers in specified directions with
respect to the earth's magnitic field it the time it would take to
fall hundreds or thousands of feet from a plane.

It would be very difficult to tramp over the fibers without
disturbing the orientation.

When Al Quada tries a night time ambush, everyone on the planet
knows about it.

This is the kind of hare-brained scheme that some Beltway Bandit
would come up with. Fine, you can detect "tramping". So how do you
tell that it was the bad guys and not some kid herding his Daddy's
goats?

Send a drone over.

The satellite system monitors hundreds of thousand of square miles
silently and, with UV or IR lasers, invisibly.

As for
distinguishing digging from traffic, fine, let's say you can do
that. So they pay a bunch of kids to bury thousands of coffee cans
all over the place and you can't tell where the real bomb is until
you go dig them all up by which time it's already gone off.

The more you force the enemy to waste time with counter measures the
less time and resources they have to deploy real bombs.

Shine a 4 milliwatt 645 nm wavelength dollar store pet laser onto
a red reflector lens at night and it explodes into color.

Slender reflective fibers would easily reflect a relatively low
power satellite based laser a couple hundred miles back to the
satellite and show up on satellite imaging. A very weak magnet on
each fiber could orient the fibers in specified directions with
respect to the earth's magnitic field it the time it would take
to fall hundreds or thousands of feet from a plane.

Wind and aerodynamics are much stronger forces than the Earth's
magnetic field.

And?

And in the real world a "very weak magnet" wouldn't do crap,

Have you even calculated the Reynolds number of such a fiber at
terminal velocity?

You now look like a complete idiot to anyone who has ever taken
continuum mechanics.

much less
"orient the fibers in specified directions", which, if it would work,
would be one direction.

Do you think the magnetic element must always be aligned in the same
direction as the reflective part of the fiber?

Are you really this dumb or are you just pulling our legs?

Shine a 4 milliwatt 645 nm wavelength dollar store pet laser onto
a red reflector lens at night and it explodes into color.

Slender reflective fibers would easily reflect a relatively low
power satellite based laser a couple hundred miles back to the
satellite and show up on satellite imaging. A very weak magnet on
each fiber could orient the fibers in specified directions with
respect to the earth's magnitic field it the time it would take
to fall hundreds or thousands of feet from a plane.

Wind and aerodynamics are much stronger forces than the Earth's
magnetic field.

And?

And in the real world a "very weak magnet" wouldn't do crap,

Have you even calculated the Reynolds number of such a fiber at
terminal velocity?

You now look like a complete idiot to anyone who has ever taken
continuum mechanics.

Whereas

Shine a 4 milliwatt 645 nm wavelength dollar store pet laser onto a
red reflector lens at night and it explodes into color.

Slender reflective fibers would easily reflect a relatively low
power satellite based laser a couple hundred miles back to the
satellite and show up on satellite imaging. A very weak magnet on
each fiber could orient the fibers in specified directions with
respect to the earth's magnitic field it the time it would take to
fall hundreds or thousands of feet from a plane.

It would be very difficult to tramp over the fibers without
disturbing the orientation.

When Al Quada tries a night time ambush, everyone on the planet
knows about it.

This is the kind of hare-brained scheme that some Beltway Bandit
would come up with. Fine, you can detect "tramping". So how do you
tell that it was the bad guys and not some kid herding his Daddy's
goats?

Send a drone over.

And how does "sending a drone over" tell you about events that happened
hours earlier?  

Shine a 4 milliwatt 645 nm wavelength dollar store pet laser onto a
red reflector lens at night and it explodes into color.

Slender reflective fibers would easily reflect a relatively low power
satellite based laser a couple hundred miles back to the satellite and
show up on satellite imaging. A very weak magnet on each fiber could
orient the fibers in specified directions with respect to the earth's
magnitic field it the time it would take to fall hundreds or thousands
of feet from a plane.

It would be very difficult to tramp over the fibers without disturbing
the orientation.

When Al Quada tries a night time ambush, everyone on the planet knows
about it.