Profiling the Rough Surface by Migration

It is often advantageous to estimate the ground surface topography from radar returns. However, the popular method, searching for the brightest pixel in the ground-penetrating radar profile, cannot achieve accurate surface topography in the sharp variable surface case because of the effects of diffraction waves. In this letter, we propose a method to solve the problem and improve the accuracy of surface topography. A migration technique is introduced to refocus the diffraction waves before searching for the brightest pixel. Experimental data have been used to display the effects of diffraction waves and test the method. The result shows that the method can dramatically estimate accurate surface topography even in the sharp variable surface area.