Kenneth B. Chiacchia, PhD1 ,Heather J. Billings, PhD1,2 and Heather E. Houlahan, ABD1
1Mountaineer Area Rescue Group, Appalachian Search and Rescue Conference, Morgantown, WV, U.S.A.
2Department of Pathology, Anatomy & Laboratory Medicine, West Virginia University Health Sciences Center,
Morgantown, WV, U.S.A.
Email chiacchiakb@gmail.com
https://doi.org/10.61618/ PDJD2492
Abstract
A key lost-person search method is the “grid team,” a line of searchers moving abreast through the
woods. The optimum spacing for such searchers is not clear, however. We have determined the spacing
necessary for searchers to see their immediate neighbors’ head, belt, or boots at sites in West Virginia in
the summer and in Pennsylvania in the summer and winter. An analysis of the probabilities of detection
(PODs) expected from previously or newly measured effective sweep width (W) values in those locations
for each of these spacings suggests that each offers a consistent and useful POD for a given search
object that does not appear to be affected by location or season by an operationally significant amount.
KEYWORDS: SAR, effective sweep width, probability of detection, search theory