An improved tomographic approach for accurate target reconstruction from GPR numerical data

Abstract

This study aims at investigating the advances in terms of the reconstruction capabilities offered by an ad-hoc imaging procedure capable of accounting for the actual radiation features of the Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) antennas. The study is carried out by using a `synthetic setup', which is implemented with a numerical tool able to simulate the characteristics of the antenna system as well as the signals used for the actual illumination. This enables us to obtain an accurate determination of both the incident and the backscattered electromagnetic (EM) fields in the investigated scenarios. GPR data are then processed by means of a consolidated frequency-domain microwave tomographic approach, which is reformulated in such a way to consider the actual EM field radiated by the adopted transmitting antenna. A representative example referred to synthetic data is provided to manage and discuss the improvements in the imaging process achievable with the proposed approach.