Bin Laden can run, but he can't hide
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http://www.nytimes.com/2001/11/22/international/22DETE.html
New Sensors Report, 'I Know They're in There, I Can See Them Breathing'
November 22, 2001
THE HUNT
New Sensors Report, 'I Know They're in There, I Can See Them Breathing'
By ANDREW C. REVKIN
merican forces seeking the hide- outs of Osama bin Laden are being
equipped with sophisticated new technology — an array of sensors — that
can pierce darkness, bad weather and as much as 100 feet of solid rock,
homing in on heat, magnetic fields, vibrations and other faint cues.
The devices, borne by aircraft, towed behind vehicles or carried by
soldiers, can sense slight traces of heat on a cold mountainside, the hum
of a buried generator, the magnetic signals from electrical wires.
Some of the sensors did not exist just a decade ago, while others have had
their accuracy greatly improved in recent years by the same digital
revolution that has drastically increased the power of video recorders and
computers. The devices were described by government officials and
scientists who spoke on the condition of anonymity because many aspects of
the technologies are classified.
The sophisticated surveillance equipment could be particularly valuable,
government officials say, now that the fast-moving military campaign in
Afghanistan has forced leaders of Al Qaeda and the Taliban to shun radios
and mobile phones, which had been routinely intercepted by electronic
sensors on American spy planes.
As it happens, the heat-sensing devices will work with increasing
efficiency as cold weather tightens its grip in the region. Scientists who
helped develop the equipment say the slightest hint of warm air escaping
from a tunnel or cave will stand out like a beacon from miles away.
"As it gets colder the caves are going to stay warm," a government
scientist said. "Openings that release that air are going to be seen as a
hot spot."
Some heat-sensing devices used on American warplanes, unmanned spy planes
and scouting vehicles can discern variations in temperature as far as 30
miles away, at a resolution fine enough to reveal a parked vehicle in
total darkness.
Lightweight versions of the same kind of device sit atop the gun barrels
of rifles and heavy machine guns, allowing marksmen, in dust or darkness,
to spot a person a mile and a half away and a car four miles away.
The latest versions not only can detect infrared light emanating from a
warm object, but can also decipher details of the chemical composition of
the target from telltale wiggles in the emitted spectrum.
Because of great advances in computer power, "we can analyze the
atmospherics around something, which helps you know what you are really
seeing," said Mike Johnson, a retired rear admiral who is the new
president of Recon/Optical, a company based in Barrington, Ill., that
makes some of the world's most advanced heat-sensing equipment.
For example, the devices can identify the breath of a soldier or
pollutants in the exhaust from a tank.
Scanners developed by the government can detect extremely weak magnetic
fields generated by metal equipment stashed in a tunnel up to 100 feet
underground. Similar equipment can pick up faint fields from wiring, such
as the cables providing lighting to tunnel networks used by Al Qaeda.
Radar that can penetrate the ground and devices that spot underground