Ground penetrating radar tomography

Abstract

Presents a survey of theory and practice in tomographic imaging of subsurface features utilizing ground penetrating radar (GPR). The discussion includes: (i) A brief review of the equations governing radar scattering culminating in the Lippmann Schwinger (LS) equation. (ii) A summary of approximations often made in developing GPR imaging algorithms based on inversion of the LS equation: the scalar wave approximation, the two dimensional scattering model, and neglect of multiple scattering. (iii) A description of certain inversion algorithms used in GPR work. This includes a short discussion of ill-posed problems utilizing a one dimensional model equation, a review of difficulties characteristic of tomographic inversion, a summary of results based on linearized inversion methods such as Devaney's (1992) generalized projection slice theorem, and finally, a brief overview of the some numerical algorithms. (iv) A discussion of a field study using GPR to image shallow targets.