A SEMINAR REPORT ON

GROUND PENETRATING RADAR

Submitted by:
AMIT KUMAR
14EC63R01
MTech- 1st year, RF & MW

RF & Microwave Engineering

Department of Electronics & Electrical Communication Engineering

Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur

ABSTRACT
Ground-penetrating radar is a nondestructive testing technique which uses
electromagnetic waves to investigate the composition of non conducting materials
either when searching for buried objects or when measuring their internal structure.
A typical surface penetrating radar transmits a short pulse of electromagnetic
energy of 1 ns time duration from a transmit antenna into the material. Energy
reflected from discontinuities in impedance is received by means of a receive
antenna and is then suitably processed and displayed by a radar receiver and
display unit. If the transmit and receive antennas are moved at a constant velocity
along a linear path, a cross-sectional image of the material can be generated.
Alternatively, if the antennas are scanned in a regular grid pattern, a threedimensional image of the target can be derived.

1. INTRODUCTION
A variety of civil, commercial, governmental and military organizations often have
a need either to detect concealed objects or to determine the internal structure of
materials. In the case of concealed objects, examples include buried explosive
mines, buried ordnance, contaminated waste, concealed tunnels, buried bodies and
caches of arms or explosives. The terms ground-probing radar, subsurface radar
and surface-penetrating radar refer to a technique used for the location of objects
or interfaces buried beneath the earths surface or located within a visually opaque
structure. Surface-penetrating radar is particularly useful for investigating non or
partially conducting host material because it is rapid and provides immediate onsite information. It can detect metallic and nonmetallic targets and operates in a
variety of materials to depths up to hundreds of meters.

The main operational advantages of the technique are that the antennas of a
surface-penetrating radar do not need to be in contact with the surface of the earth,
and so rapid surveying is possible. Indeed, surface-penetrating radars have been
flown at heights of 400 m in SAR (synthetic aperture radar) mode and have imaged
buried metallic mines. They have also been used from earth-orbiting satellites to
image geological features buried beneath the Sahara Desert.
The initial application of the technique developed in the UK was the
measurement of polar ice thickness; probing depths of several kilometers were
achieved in the Antarctic by the Scott Polar Institute.' Following this successful
application the technique was applied to the challenge of detecting buried plastic
mines and much work was initially carried out in the USA, the UK and,
subsequently, Sweden. There are now a number of commercially available
equipments and the technique is gradually developing in scope and capability.
Radar has also been used successfully to provide forensic information in the course
of criminal investigations.
2. PRINCIPLE OF OPERATION
A surface penetrating radar is an example of an ultra wideband radar and operates
in a way very similar to that of a conventional radar but with several important
differences. The first is that, whereas conventional radar operates over ranges of
tens or hundreds of kilometers, a typical surface penetrating radar operates at
ranges of a few meters and a maximum of tens of meters. The second is that the
resolution of conventional radar can be tens of meters, whereas a ground probing
radar requires a resolution of some tens of centimeters or less. The final, and most
important, difference is that conventional radar transmits through the air, which
usually causes little attenuation, whereas ground-probing radar uses a material such
as soil or concrete as a transmission medium, the attenuation of which is very high

and in many cases limits the overall performance. Surface penetrating radar
generates a short impulse of electromagnetic energy of a few nanoseconds duration
at a peak power of typically 50 W and a repetition frequency of up to 1 MHz. This
impulse is then launched into the transmission medium by means of an antenna.
Reflected energy from the target is gathered by means of a receiving antenna
(usually similar to the transmitting antenna), as shown in Fig. 1. The receiver
processes the information by sampling, filtering and displaying the signal in a
suitable form for the operator. If both antennas are scanned over the surface of the
host material at a constant velocity along a linear path, a cross-sectional image of
the material can be generated. If the antennas are scanned in a regular grid pattern
a three-dimensional image of the volume scanned can be derived.

Surface-penetrating radar needs to meet the following requirements:

efficient coupling of the transmitted electromagnetic energy into the ground.

 adequate penetration of the energy through the ground, having regard to

target depth.
reception from buried objects or other dielectric discontinuities of a
sufficiently large reflected signal for detection at or above the ground
surface.
an adequate bandwidth in the detected signal, having regard to the desired
resolution and noise levels.
an adequate signal-to-clutter ratio.
Surface-penetrating radar is vulnerable to extremely high levels of clutter at short
ranges and this, as well as signal/noise recovery, is its major technical challenge,
hence rough surfaces such as ploughed fields or rocky ground are difficult to
operate in successfully unless spot measurements on relatively flat areas are made.

3. ATTENUATION OF RADAR SIGNALS [1]

An electromagnetic wave propagating in the positive z direction can be described
by the equation

Where is the attenuation factor and is the phase constant.

It can be seen from the aforementioned expressions that the attenuation constant of
a material is, to a first order, linearly related (in dBm-1) to frequency. It is not
sufficient to consider only the low-frequency conductivity when attempting to
determine the loss tangent over the frequency range 10^7 to 10^10 Hz. In the case
of a material that is dry and relatively lossless it may be reasonable to consider that
tan is constant over that frequency range. For materials that are wet and lossy
such an approximation is invalid as

It is important to consider the magnitude of and in attempting to determine

the value of tan . In general, for lossy earth materials tan is large at low
frequencies, exhibits a minimum at around 10^8 Hz and increases to a maximum at
several gigahertzes, remaining constant thereafter. Accurate determination of
attenuation must therefore consider all the coefficients which comprise the
expression for tan .
It should be noted that the complex permittivity, and hence the loss factor, of a soil
is affected by both temperature and water content. The general effect of increasing
the temperature is to reduce the frequency of the dielectric relaxation, while
increasing the water content also increases the value of the loss factor while
shifting its peak frequency down. It is observed that the peak frequency of the
maximum dielectric loss of water relaxation in soils is reduced and occurs over a
more limited frequency range when compared with conductive water. Tan can
increase with frequency over the range 10^8 to 10^10 Hz as the dipolar losses

associated with the water content of the material become more significant and the
conductivity losses reduce. Hence
tan = conductivity losses + dipolar relaxation losses
Crystalline rocks, pure water and lighter soils have low attenuation characteristics
and the detection of voids, strata, inclusions etc. in these materials is therefore
much easier.
In partially conducting materials, such as silts and shale, high levels of attenuation
are encountered and, for example, 100 dB of attenuation at 1 GHz can be
frequently encountered in 0.5 m of wet clay. Table 1 gives the attenuation and
relative permittivity parameters of various materials.

Table 2 gives an approximate indication of the relationship between pulse duration

and depth, which enables the user to select the most appropriate frequency range
over which to operate.

4. VELOCITY OF PROPAGATION [1]

For homogeneous, isotropic materials, the propagation velocity, v, can be
calculated from:

Where c is the velocity of propagation in free space and r is the relative dielectric
constant, or relative permittivity, of the material. The depth to a target can then be
derived from:

where t, is the round-trip transit time to and from the target. In most practical trial
situations the relative permittivity is unknown. The velocity of propagation must
either be measured in situ, estimated by means of direct measurement of the depth
to a physical interface or target (i.e. by trial holing), or calculated from multiple

measurements. The variation of permittivity with frequency in wet dielectrics

implies that there will be some variation in the velocity of propagation with
frequency.

5. TARGET SCATTERING [1]

In general, surface-penetrating radar enables any dielectric discontinuity to be
detected and this includes nonmetallic as well as metallic targets. Targets can be
classified according to their geometry: planar interfaces; long, thin objects;
localized spherical or cubical objects, etc. The radar system can be designed to
detect a given target type and is potentially capable of producing an image of the
target in three dimensions, although less work has been done on this aspect of
image presentation. Most radar images are either produced as two-dimensional
representations, using either horizontal (x) and depth (y) axes or a horizontal plane
representation (x,y) at a given depth.
In free space the radar cross-sectional area of a target is defined by its geometry
and area, aspect and polarization. For surface-penetrating radar it is necessary to
consider additional factors, namely the coefficients of reflection and transmission
as the wave passes through the dielectric to the target. The intrinsic impedance q of
a medium is defined as the relationship between the electric field, E, and the
magnetic field, H:

is a complex quantity that is calculated according to

In a non conducting medium = 0 and the intrinsic impedance of the medium

become:

At the boundary between two media, some energy will be reflected and the
remainder transmitted. The reflected field strength is described by the reflection
coefficient, r.

Where 1 and 2 are the impedances of medium 1 and medium 2, respectively. In

a non conducting medium, such as dry soil or dry concrete, and when considering
only a single frequency of radiation the above expression may be simplified and
rewritten as:

Where r is the relative permittivity of the medium. The reflection coefficient has a
positive value when r1> r2 such as where an air-filled void exists in a dielectric
material, and negative when r1< r2 such as where a metal target is present. The
effect on a pulse waveform is to change the phase of the reflected wavelet, so that
targets with different relative permittivities to the host material show different
phase patterns of the reflected signal; hence the composition of the target may be
determined. The amplitude of the reflected signal is affected by the propagation
dielectric of the host material and the geometric characteristics and dielectric
parameters of the target.

6. CLUTTER [1]
The clutter that affects a surface-penetrating radar can be defined as those signals
that are unrelated to the target scattering characteristics but occur in the same
sample time window and have similar spectral characteristics to the target wavelet.

Clutter can be caused by breakthrough between the transmit and receive antennas
as well as by multiple reflections between the antenna and the ground surface.
Clutter will vary according to the type of antenna configuration and the parallel
planar dipole arrangement is one where the stability of the level of breakthrough is
most constant.
In general, clutter is more significant at short range times and reduces at longer
times. It is possible to quantify the rate of change of the peak clutter signal level as
a function of time as in many cases this parameter sets a limit to the detection
capability of the radar system. The effect of clutter on system performance is
shown in Fig. 2, which illustrates the consequent limitation on near-range radar
performance.

Figure 2: Received signal level against time

Various techniques have been investigated in the search for a method of reducing
clutter and in the case of impulse radars using TEM (transverse electromagnetic

wave) horns or FMCW radars using ridges, horns and reflectors, it has been found
possible to angle the boresight of the horn antennas to take advantage of the critical
angle, thereby suppressing to some extent the ground-surface reflection. Time
domain impulse radar systems are available commercially and manufacturers
usually offer a range of antennas and pulse lengths to suit the desired probing
range. Depths of greater than 30 m require pulse lengths in the order of 40 ns
(approximately a bandwidth of 50 MHz at a centre frequency of 25 MHz) and very
short-range precision probing may use pulse lengths in the order of or less than 1
ns, that is an approximate bandwidth of 2 GHz at a centre frequency of 1 GHz.

7. DATA REPRESENTATIONS [1]

The received signal in a GPR receiver may be represented as one, two or three
dimensionally named as A, B or C scans.
7.1 A scan
A single waveform b(xi,yj,t) recorded by a GPR, with the antennas at a given fixed
position (xi, yj) is referred to as an A-scan as shown in figure.3

Figure.3

7.2 B scan
When moving the GPR antennas on a line along the x-axis, one can gather a set of
A scans, which form a two dimensional data set b(x,yj,t), called a B-scan as shown
in figure.4

Figure.4

Reflections on a point scatterer located below the surface appear as hyperbolic

structures in a B-scan because of the antenna beamwidth. Figure.5 illustrates this.

Figure.5
7.3 C scan
When collecting multiple parallel B-scans a three dimensional data set b(x, y, t) can
be recorded, called a C-scan as shown in figure.6

Figure.6

8. APPLICATIONS [1] [2]

[3]

Mining, tunneling and quarrying

Geotechnical engineering and Environmental site assessment
Forensics and archeology
Concrete structure assessment
Assessment of roads & pavements
Military and security
a) UXO & landmines detection.
b) Intrusion monitoring
c) Search & rescue
Agriculture & forestry
Locating pipes and cables

9. ADVANTAGES
Rapid ground coverage is possible with vehicular mount GPR.
GPR has a high-resolution coverage of the area of surveying.
User friendly display helps in on-site interpretation about target.

10. DISADVANTAGES
Data acquisition may be slow over difficult terrain.
Depth of penetration is limited in materials with high electrical
conductivities, clays.
Energy may be reflected and recorded from aboveground features

 Artifacts in the near surface may scatter the transmitted energy

11. CONCLUSION
Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) is a noninvasive geophysical technique that
detects electrical discontinuities in the shallow subsurface. It does this by
generation, transmission, propagation, reflection and reception of discrete pulses of
high frequency electromagnetic energy. Using GPR wisely, it is possible to image
the two and three dimensional structures of a range of subsurface structures
whether be it metal pipe or sedimentary rocks. GPR image resolution and
penetration depth in a medium are controlled by Medium conductivity, Medium
dielectric constant and Antenna frequency. GPR is used in many engineering,
environmental, and geo scientific applications.

12. REFERENCES
[1] David J. Daniels, Surface-penetrating radar- Electronics & Communication
Engineering Journal August 1996
[2] Abdelhak M. Zoubir, Ian James Chant, Christopher L. Brown, Braham Barkat,
and Canicious Abeynayake, Signal processing techniques for landmine detection
using impulse ground penetrating radar IEEE sensors journal, vol. 2, No.1,
February 2002.
[3] Awangku Iswandy Awangku Serma and Halim Setan, Ground penetrating
radar for subsurface mapping: preliminary result Geo information Science
Journal, Vol. 9, No. 2, 2009
[4] SKOLNIK, M. (Ed.): 'Radar handbook' (McGraw-Hill, 1990, 2nd edn). ISBN
0-07057913-X
[5] http://wikipedia.org/wiki/Ground-penetrating_radar

[6] http://mysite.du.edu/~Iconyers/SERDP/whatis2.htm