Ground - Penetrating Radar ( Paper

GPR senses electrical inhomogeneities, with these manifested, for example, by the electrical contrast of a metal mine in the presence of a far-less-conducting soil background. Of much more difficulty, GPR senses the electrical inhomogeneity caused by a dielectric (plastic) landmine in the presence of soil. Often this contrast is very weak, implying that the landmine GPR signal is very small. This is exacerbated by the fact that there are many electrical contrasts that may exist in the landmine problem, which significantly complicate sensing. For example, the largest contrast typically exists between the air and the soil, and therefore GPR is typically characterized by a very large “ground bounce.” If a landmine is buried at a shallow depth, such that the available bandwidth implies limited resolution, the often weak landmine signature will be “buried” in the very strong ground-bounce return. This implies that bandwidth (resolution) plays an important role in defining the target depths at which a landmine may be observed by GPR. We also note that natural subsurface inhomogeneities, such as rocks, roots, surface roughness, and soil heterogeneity (e.g., pockets of wet soil), also yield a signature